Splitting Content

What's the optimal way to split content.

[aijohn]

Interested in opinions on what split of 100,000 words of content on a niche site would be best for site ranking, search engine friendliness, adsense income, etc.

500 200 word pages
400 250 word pages
250 400 word pages
200 500 word pages
150 660 word pages

other combinations that might do better?

I am not suggesting some sort of mechanical split, just
guidelines for ranges.

Certainly the pages would vary depending on what was needed for specific subjects, but this info would be helpful in deciding which pages to combine, which ones should be split.

Thanks

[Frequent]

This really needs to be done organically based on the content itself. However, I would try to stay under 400 words to a page. Just an opinion though, no basis in science.

Freq---

[Curiosity]

I'd agree with Frequent that the splitting needs to be done organically. I personally think that slightly longer pages look more authoritative, though, so unless I'm addressing a very young audience, I try to put at least 400-500 words on a page. 300 is a bit light, and 250 or less is a blurb, not content.

This varies widely by topic, so you might want to do a word count of other sites in your niche.

[europeforvisitors]

Break pages into logical units.

In other words, a detailed article on breakfast baked goods might have a page about muffins, another on doughnuts, another about croissants and brioches, and so on. This approach works well with search crawlers and AdSense (since the pages have focused topics), and--just as important--it's convenient for the reader.

[Visit Thailand]

The only problem I have with cutting large pages up, is the print function. I am sure there is a way to do it, but I quite like that viewers can cleanly print out a large amount of text on one page, rather than have to navigate to page 1, 2, 3 etc.

[Curiosity]

Do people print pages out frequently? I myself rarely do, and most people surfing from work don't print, either. Unless you're in a niche where people are likely to print your page out, I'd optimize for the screen rather than the printout.

You could also make a screen-optimized version with a "Click here for a printable version" link to a plain document, and have the best of both worlds.

[aijohn]

Thanks for the replies.

For a more specific question, stick with the 100,000 words as a fixed resource available. (Make it 200,000 if you're more ambitious and a fast writer or can recruit others to write content.) If those of you with more experience were creating a travel site for East Elbonia or Lower Brooklyn, what would be the average size page you would aim for if the primary objective was to move up in the search engines?

[europeforvisitors]

Unless you're in a niche where people are likely to print your page out, I'd optimize for the screen rather than the printout.

One possibility is to use a CMS that generates printer-friendly pages on the fly.

I seldom worry about printer-friendly pages myself because my content is heavily geared toward Web use (e.g., many or most pages contain "value added" links to related internal and external content, unlike a typical newspaper or magazine story).