Best Practice: Scroll- versus time-delayed Page Pops

Misty Flowers

April 12, 2019 18:44

This article covers when to use scroll-delayed versus time-delayed Timed Page Pops in Finalsite Composer, including examples for blog subscription prompts and homepage navigation suggestions.

💡Quick answers

What is the difference between scroll-delay and time-delay Page Pops? Scroll-delay pops wait until a visitor has scrolled at least halfway down a page before appearing, while time-delay pops appear after a set number of seconds, from about 7 up to 60, on a page.
When should a scroll-delay Page Pop be used? Scroll-delay works well for content like a blog post, where waiting until a visitor has read about half the content signals real interest, such as prompting them to subscribe.
When is a timed Page Pop the better choice? Timed pops work well on pages like the homepage, where you want to guide visitors to a specific page, such as Tuition or Admissions, after they've spent a bit of time browsing.
Why avoid showing a Page Pop immediately when a visitor lands on a page? An immediate pop can feel presumptuous and prevents new visitors from absorbing the page's own content first, such as images and videos on a homepage.

Timed Page Pops are an evolution of our current Page Pops designed to increase engagement across your website and direct site traffic to pages you want visitors to see. Timed Page Pops add the ability to delay a notification until a visitor has spent at least 7 seconds on a page (up to 60 seconds), or until the user has scrolled at least halfway down the page.

This article will show when it's best to use scroll-delay page pops and when to use time-delay page pops.

Purpose and use cases

While both the scroll- and time-delay options ultimately accomplish the same goal of notifying visitors once you’ve gauged their interest, each option has different use cases to maximize their effectiveness.

Example #1: Blog subscription

For example, if a new visitor is reading your school’s blog for the first time, it does not make sense to immediately ask them to subscribe as soon as the page loads. They have no way of knowing if they're actually interested in the content of your blog, and asking them to subscribe too soon might serve only to drive them away instead of retaining them as a subscriber.

Instead, delay the notification that asks visitors to subscribe until after they have scrolled halfway down the page. This delay option assumes the visitor has read approximately half of whatever post they are currently viewing. It’s safe to assume that, if someone reads around half of a blog, they are at least interested enough in your blog’s content to consider subscribing to regularly view more content.

Example #2: Homepage navigation

For the timed delay option, you may want to ask new visitors to your school’s homepage if they would like to visit a specific page with useful information after they’ve been on the page for 15, 30, or 60 seconds.

The visitor may be taking the time to read or skim over the content of your homepage or, more likely, they are quickly going through your website’s navigation to find the page they are looking for. Having that notification pop up after they’ve been on the homepage for a brief period of time could improve their user experience by gently guiding them to pages they likely want to find, such as the About Us, Tuition, Inquiry, or Application pages.

Timing considerations

Avoid immediately suggesting these pages, as it seems presumptuous to assume every visitor is looking for guidance and most new visitors want some time on a new website to absorb the information available. Moreover, an immediate notification prevents them from viewing all those amazing images and videos that you are proudly displaying on your homepage.