Working with a couple of other designers, we contracted to build a 20 page website that required one of the partners to build a plugin for her requested dynamic content.

Like with so many projects like this the client’s dreams were big, but her budget wasn’t. After a walk-through of her current outdated website, we agreed to her budget.

Once the contract was signed and the deposit was paid, we got a “new updated list of pages to design”. The list went from 20 pages to 40 something, and we put the brakes on the project. After several back and forth discussions on what constituted 20 pages, she agrees with our definition but had a new trick up her sleeve.

She now placed all of the extra content on the previously agreed to 20 pages. With this trick, several of her pages were anywhere from 12,241 pixels long to 21,998 pixels. The 21,998 converts to 25.8 feet. My other two partners and I felt this would be horrible for SEO, but may not according to a case study by Crazy Egg.

After making their original sales pages 20 times longer than the original their conversion rate went up 363%. Personally, I don’t get it. There is no way I’m going to scroll through that much content.

What are your experiences with websites you’ve designed or websites you’ve landed on and have to scroll to the moon and back?