As with so much in the tech world, demand fosters development. And with the resurrection of Parallax Scrolling, software companies are scrambling to unleash a torrent of plug-ins and third-party products for use by web designers, helping make their sites Search Engine Optimized (SEO) and the pages more seamless, all in line with industry best practices and Responsive Web Design.
Because Parallax Scrolling is a design technique meant to be applied to one URL (a single page) rather than entire website on one URL, throwing SEO into the mix can be tricky. Experts highly recommend putting just one target keyword or phrase per Parallax Scrolling page. Provided you have good content on each page, your SEO should work great. However, targeting multiple keywords or phrases on a single page leads to “dilution,” which could give muddled results from search engines. In essence, combining SEO with Parallax scrolling is all about striking the perfect balance, keeping both visitors and search engines happy.
If you’re just getting started designing with Parallax Scrolling, there are some products available, with more coming soon. Some good jquery plug-ins include Scrolling Parallax Plugin for jQuery, Jarallax NanoScroller.js, PageScroller.js and ZyngaScroller.js. Adobe Muse appears to be—for the moment at least—the go-to resource, but some designers are outwardly upset: Due to the layout-based nature of Muse, the app doesn’t require coding knowledge, which some believe ignores accessibility, page load times and SEO.
WebPress created a platform-specific plug-in with Background Scroll, and there are several free products—including Scrolly, Scrollorama, Stellar.js and Spritely—that are generating positive buzz throughout the industry.
