Infinite scrolling and page views

Question

I'm working on a content-delivery portal restyle. Basically, it has huge lists of addresses and numbers (sort of whitepages). What I was wondering is:

I wanted to test infinite scrolling and avoid the simple pagination (1 2 3 4 ..) but then I came up with a big problem: page views is crucial for the website so that it generates more advert impressions. The question is:

How can I enhance the user experience and engagement in content fruition (much like what I intend to do with the infinite scrolling) without losing page views? I know this is a simple question, yet I think it bears some really nice answer to it.

Answer 1

Advert impressions don't have to be based on page views. They can be time based, where the advert is changed every 30 seconds or something like that. That way you can use infinite scrolling and still have the advertising revenue that you want.

This is how it usually works on mobile advertising where there is a banner that doesn't necessarily change between screens.

Alternatively, you can have the advert change depending on the position. So maybe advert A for the first 15 items, but then when the view for items 16 - 30 you show advert B.

Answer 2

Using JavaScript, you can tell where a user is on the page. A plugin for jQuery called Waypoints gives you that granularity.

Here is an example of that code in practice: http://imakewebthings.com/jquery-waypoints/examples/scroll-analytics/

As you scroll down the page, you'll notice adverts appearing down the right. But, please do make sure they're not obtrusive. This plugin has good uses too, such as surfacing functionality when needed, providing a position marker, such as updating a table of contents.

With regards to infinite scrolling, take a look here: When is it better to paginate and not to paginate?

Answer 3

Infinite scrolling is quite nice in some contexts, such as Facebook or Twitter where you're just reading through content but I think you should consider number or letter indexing when you are actually listing info. Consider a scenario where a user wants to share the list for example. And having separate pages could also help when you're searching for something specific in the list and you don't want to lose the first item's location when you are searching for more.

What I would prefer in a situation like this would be to have a nice big button to get to the next page in addition to the small number list at the bottom. That would make the user's experience smoother and generate page views. Perhaps a similar button at the top left to go to the previous page.

I have no idea what kind of a list you will have or if you will have any filtering but I just wanted to put the thought out there.