Length of articles

Recommendations on the amount of text?

[wolfadeus]

My website provides mostly text content, usually coming in small amounts of 300 to 700 words which I then pack into one page.

Now I got some more extensive pieces of text (2000 words and more) and beyond using paragraphs and sub-headlines as well as some photographs, I wondered where I should start splitting a page into two.

Any experience? Not only to help the user, but also in terms of SEO. Thanks! W.

[shigamoto]

The idea behind splitting content is for the user not to scroll that much. I usually split when the user has to scroll more than two-three screens. I know some who split much more and some sites that forces the user to scroll a lot.

Some add photos so that the user gets a more pleasant experience when scrolling, that way they avoid splits.

A good measure is to simply split at the point where you grow tired of scrolling. You also need to keep in mind that users may be using different resolutions when viewing your site, enabling them to scroll more or less .

When splitting content it is wise to use headlines for each page you have made. For example if the article are about Widgets, the first page may have the headline:

Widgets: Blue Widgets in a Global Environment

the second page

Widgets: Why you need widgets right now

the third page

Widgets: Avoid widget fraud

This will get users tempted to read on, don't forget to include next links with the headlines and page number in them. You see far too many pages with just links like Page 2, or Next. Not very tempting to click.

That pretty much summons my experiences on splitting content.:)

[wolfadeus]

Cool, thank you! That was essentially what I thought to please my users (beyond making the site look nice with some pictures); but I still wonder whether google will favour few long pages or rather many shorter ones and where to draw the border.

[Syzygy]

...please my users...

Hold that thought...

Syzygy

[Beagle]

Long ago, when I first started building webpages (long before I started building websites), I saw somewhere that a good reading length for a text webpage is somewhere in the vicinity of 1200-1800 words. Couldn't tell you anymore where I read it, but I try to stick basically with those parameters and they seem to work pretty well. Having said that, it all depends on the content; break where it makes sense. Sometimes keeping an eye on the length lets me know I've said more than enough about a specific topic and it's time to move on to the next section or even the next article.

Have no idea about Google. But specific topics/subtopics on different pages would seem logically to work there, too, with more targeted keywords. -- That's just a guess.

[writespeak]

>> I saw somewhere that a good reading length for a text webpage is somewhere in the vicinity of 1200-1800 words.

Interesting. I remember reading a long time ago that pages should be 1000 words max. Of course each of those statements was one person's opinion, but anything longer than 1000 words feels too long to me. Just as we break content into paragraphs to make it easier for the mind to digest it in chunks, I think that breaking it into pages aids in digestibility too.

>> Having said that, it all depends on the content; break where it makes sense.

I agree with that. That's the main point, but I try to balance it with having no more than about 1000 words on a page. Up to 700-800 is even better IMO.

Lois

[Yaroslav]

All good thoughts. Sense + normal length = the golden mean :)

[Lobo]

I think it is more to do with how you present it..

I tend to not scroll anymore than one screen size, which for a number of sites is quite short..

Break up the text a lot more than you would in print..

And follow on pages should be fast...

Make a good print version available.

And rather than word count, think how you keep your user engaged ...

Reading passages online will always be better in short sharp punchy chunks..