One of the latest increasingly popular design trends on websites is parallax scrolling, a great visual feature that can impress your website’s visitor, but some people wondering whether or not this is SEO‘s friend or foe.
Firstly, what exactly does parallax scrolling provide? Initially developed for the world of video games to help provide the illusion of depth, it can now be implemented on websites as well; when a user is on a parallax scrolling website, the background images move down the screen slower than the foreground images, thus creating a 3D effect and a similar illusion of depth. When used correctly, this can be an impressive feature that leaves a lasting impression (see examples here). However, one major downfall of many of these sites is that they possess a one-page architecture, leaving little for search engines to process.
There are ways around obtaining a one-page website, and these are important to consider should you want to implement parallax scrolling for your own business or brand. Including parallax scrolling on only the homepage and then implementing additional SEO-friendly URLs without this feature, or starting with a SEO web structure and then placing the parallax scrolling on each individual URL are two different tactics that will allow your site to remain more attractive in the eyes of search engines.
Overall, it is important to remember that when you are striving for online success and exposure and are in the market for a website, the more quality, optimized content and areas there are, the better, and having the right website design company to make your vision a reality is key.