From the article: How Do You Optimize a Multi-Page Article for Search Engines?
There are many theories on whether writing a long Web page is better than splitting it up into multiple short pages. I have written for the Web in both ways, and I prefer keeping my articles all on one page. Find out what other readers do for long articles and share your own decisions. Share Your Reasons
Fast and Furious
- I have two practical reasons for prefering one page articles. First due to overuse of a mouse for years, I have pain in my right hand, arm, & shoulder, with one page I can use my arrow keys or limit to the scroll wheel. Second, I am impatient and want to read the article and move on to the next activity.
- —Guest Perky
Scroll wheel on my mouse
- It's there for a reason. When I'm reading an article I scroll with it as I read the article. Split your article across many pages and I'll go and find something else to read instead.
- —Guest stan
Content
- More than one page- the reader will lose interesst and go where it is easier to read.
- —Guest joediesel
clickability
- Articles should be one simple view without having to go to multiple pages to read it. Clips to catch the eye of course are fine, no need to scroll down an entire article if the headline and first sentence don't catch me to begin with.
- —Guest Jeff H.
To the Point!!
- My interpretation of a good article is? Short and sweet and to the point! Visitors will only read what they're interested in anyway. They visit my Home page find what they are looking for then vanish!!
- —Cheekyman
"Fractured" articles suck
- I don't write them, and hate reading them! Unlike daveqwerty I do have a high speed connection. But like him I dislike "fractured" articles. I want to read the content, not play hand-eye co-ordination games trying to find and click on the "next page" link, not the prior page or last page links. Actually, I normally just go directly to the "Print" option and read the print formatted page. It has the added advantage of no advertising clutter. Tony9 makes a valid point, but most of the time the page breaks are pointless by his measure. My particular favorites are ones that split in the middle of a paragraph or even a sentence then continue on for only a few lines on the next page. Obviously the author web-master is "forced" split them at a "standard" length, probably a word count.
- —Guest Ron
multi pages hard to read
- I hate to go to more than one page to read what I want to know. Also it makes it harder to print things out. This should be stopped!
- —Guest Lora Hoffman
clicking no big deal
- I don't see what the big deal with pagination. I understand that we as web designers, have to work to the desires of the viewer, but come on. I've never been put off by having to click to the next page of an article that's worth reading. How hard is that. Instead, I think we should be asking ourselves: Is my article written well enough for viewers to bother clicking to the next page?
- —Guest ic3ss
Multipages Turn Me Away
- I avoid multi-page whenever possible unless the situation makes it practical. For an article, I want it all at once. For a reference, I like it broken up for quick location of what I'm after and then I can read more if I want.
- —Guest JsueChat
Multi-page on Dial-up is a killer
- Hi-speed is not available in my rural area and at the cottage. On dial-up, multi-page articles are extremely frustrating as I must read to the end of a page and then wait painfully while the next section loads. One-page articles load in the background as I read them and make good use of my time. I rarely get to the last page of a multi-page article when on dial-up.
- —Daveqwerty
Why create Unnecessary navigation?
- I believe that breaking up an article into pages based on assumptions about the reader's attention span is a bad idea. It results in unneeded links and pages and makes printing difficult. Whenever appropriate for the subject and particularly for technical articles, I add anchor tags at the top so they can jump to areas of special interest to them. We just don't know enough about our target groups' reading preference, but I like to think that I'm creating content that's worthy enough for people to want to read to the end.
- —ebmeyer
multi-page articles help when searching
- If you are writing content about different facets of the same topic it makes sense to use the multi-page approach. That way a search engine can direct your visitors to the page containing the aspect they were interested in. Whereas, when directed by a search engine to a single long page, it can be frustrating trying to locate the part relevant to the search.
- —tony9
Just say no to clicking
- I hate writeing multipage articles, and in fact will avoid them when I see them on the internet. when I find a topic that interests me, I want to read it all in one go, not have to click every few seconds. The only advantage I can see to the clicks is knowing exactly how many people made it to the second part of an article, and honestly I don't really care.
- —Guest Longpager
