Splitting an article over two pages

[browndog]

Some of my articles are quite long and I'm wondering if it is better to split them over two pages or not. Is there any benefit to dividing it over a couple of pages? I'm not talking one page per sentence which some sites do (really really annoying). But how many words should be on a page before it's getting too long? I guess for me, visually it's a bit unattractive. I have ads and links to other articles on the left and right, but as a lot of the articles are so long, I just end up with a lot of blank space left and right when you scroll past about 600 words.

For me personally, I don't mind long articles on one page. What I don't like is huge blocks of text. I find that really overwhelming. So try to keep my paragraphs reasonably short. I may have several shortish paragraphs per section, it just feels easier to me and try to make my articles as reader friendly as I can. There is one site in my niche, and her articles are amazing, but they are just huge chunks of text and really hard to focus on.

[martinibuster]

I just end up with a lot of blank space left and right when you scroll past about 600 words.

Sounds like you have a boxed template that enforces a fixed size for the content part. Try changing your template to a wide version.

What I don't like is huge blocks of text. I find that really overwhelming. So try to keep my paragraphs reasonably short.

Bingo! Go further. Keep your paragraphs unreasonably short, or at least shorter than reasonable. Two longer sentences can be long enough. Also, keep your sentences as short as possible.

As you already intuited, reading on the web is difficult. The style codes meant for print that dictate four to five sentences per paragraph do not apply.

The other solution to apply is to integrate more photos, tables, ordered lists, and information boxes that have a different background color. Those four will break up your wall of text.

I write articles for Search Engine Journal and I create about five to six original images from stock photos and my own graphic elements for my each of my articles that are typically 4,000 to 5,000 words long.

For my own websites I create about six images, information boxes, etc. Those elements help to break up long articles on the web.

Good luck,

Roger Montti

[EditorialGuy]

As Martinibuster suggested, keeping paragraphs short and using layout tricks (white space, photos, etc. can help to break up the "wall of text." The tricky part is how to strike a balance between readability on a large-screen device and on a smartphone. Two-sentence paragraphs, for example, work well on a phone but can make an article look like verse on a desktop or laptop screen.

Whether to break articles into multiple pages is a different issue. I'll break really long articles, guides, etc. into multiple pages if they lend themselves to logical subdivision. For example, it would make sense to divide a biographical article about Tom, Dick, and Harry into multiple pages if there were enough content to justify a dedicated page for each:

1. Introduction
2. Tom
3. Dick
4. Harry

This approach can be good for users *and* for SEO, because each page has a clear focus ("Tom," "Dick," or "Harry" as opposed to "Tom, Dick, and Harry").

To put it another way, don't avoid logical structure just because inept or shortsighted publishers have cluttered up the Web with unnecessary slide shows.

Finally, some food for thought: A usability study at Stanford once asked test subjects to compare the readability of two articles: A long article on a single page, and an even longer version of the article broken into multiple pages. The test subjects perceived the latter as being shorter (and more readable) even though it was, in fact, longer.

[lucy24]

The style codes meant for print that dictate four to five sentences per paragraph do not apply.

Integrate it into your responsivity. If someone is reading on a desktop machine, paragraphs may even be shorter (top to bottom) than in print*, so a new paragraph every other sentence will look choppy and irritating. But on a smartphone you can barely fit two sentences onto the screen. So things like (making this up at random)

<span class = "para">blahblahblah</span> <span class = "para">moreblahblah</span>
and then for selected sizes
span.para {display: block;}


* For ebooks I always set a max-width in ems, because a viewport width that's great for looking at lots of pictures all at once makes a terrible reading experience. There's a reason newspapers and magazines always use multiple columns.

[browndog]

Thanks so much for the replies, I have put feelers out for widening the template, techy I am not.

1. Introduction
2. Tom
3. Dick
4. Harry

Yes, that is EXACTLY what I am doing. I think it is more user-friendly because not everybody wants to read the intro, Tom, Dick and Harry. Some just want to read about Harry, others about Tom. Some articles became so long I added a table of contents at the start with links directly to each section.

Funny you should mention images, only last weekend I greatly increased the size of photos, particularly on certain pages which photos really give it more life. I think I've been scared to use large images because in the early days they slowed down page loading time, and wow, the pages with the images really pop out now.

I would say as far as paragraphs go, my sentence and paragraph length would be about the same as I use on here. If it's complex. Probably no more than four or five sentences. I cut out filler words as much as possible.

I've started using tables with a different colour just to add things like 'did you know'...with a bit of trivia/or some facts for the reader. It makes it a bit more interesting I think and my competitors don't do that. So it may be 'did you know the first ever Harry was born in 1563 and was the son of a farrier'.

I haven't heard of the Standord study, that is interesting. My goal is to make them as readable and reader friendly as possible. I tend to go by what I like. Which is bite-sized chunks, as to the point as possible, but covering the topic in as much depth as I possibly can. I know for me, I am a huge scroller, and if I can't find the information on the page within a couple of seconds, I hit back. So the contents at the top, along with larger titles above each section which can easily be seen will hopefully help the reader get the information they want.