The answer is it depends :).
Why you should NOT break up your blog posts into multiple pages
In the case of blogging to generate business (not personal blogging), it’s best not to break up your posts or articles into multiple pages. And this is what we mean:
If you look at the image above, you’ll notice that it’s page one of the blog post, and you have to click “Next” to read the rest. This article has been broken up into multiple pages. Source
Here are some reasons you should not break up your posts:
- Longer form content generally out-ranks your competitors’ content. This means you’ll get more traffic and show up higher in the Google search engine.
- Longer form content generally attracts more keyword searches than shorter articles.
- An article spread across multiple URLs is basically a form of duplicate content. Each page competes with the others to be the one Google should pick over all of them.
Why you SHOULD break up your blog posts and articles into multiple pages
This is a good idea if you’re running a website that generates revenue from advertising. Some ads generate money on a per impression basis. So the more pageviews you get from visitors, the more revenue you will earn. Therefore, it’s best to break up super engaging content into a few pages to increase the ad impression count.
Additionally, by making the pages shorter, the ad vs. text ratio is more ad heavy than text heavy. This may increase the chance of an ad click-through. But this reasoning should be tested. Each website is different, and visitor behavior is different from site to site. So always be diligent about testing and measuring the activity on your site.
Doesn’t breaking up posts and articles into multiple pages read better?
Perhaps. Some people don’t like having to read incredibly long articles. And if they catch wind that the article is especially long (maybe they notice the vertical scroll barely moving as they read), they may click back. However, it’s probably best to first design a very readable blog before even considering breaking up posts into multiple pages. This is what we mean:
- Choose a font, font size, line height, and font spacing that makes reading easy and pleasurable. Visit Medium.com. They do a good job of this.
- Choose a paragraph width that’s not too wide, so that it’s easy to find the next line. Super wide paragraphs make it difficult to find the next line.
- Be careful when placing ads or calls-to-action within posts. If they are distracting or slow down the web browser, they’re generally self-defeating.
If you need help designing your blog to generate maximum revenue, feel free to reach out to us for a free consultation. We’d love to get you headed in the right direction.
