How to display long articles

[Crusader]

Now this might sound like a strange question, but I've been thinking about this for a while. I'm working on some long(ish) articles for one of my sites. I'm wondering what the best presentation option would be.

One page that the user can keep open and scroll through or multiple short pages with "next" sections. From a user perspective I find it a bit tedious to have to click on the next button more than 3 or 4 times.

What do you guys think, or how do you tackle the problem?

[Dejavu]

One page for me.
I hate having to constantly hit next, even if the page is long.

[TechnoGeek]

Hello, Crusader.
From the perspective of the user, I think I would favor the middle option: a few pages with a next button. A big page sometimes takes much time to download, and when it has finished I may found that it doesn't interest me. With a shorter page, I can see at once if I'm interested or not.

[Bender]

As a user, I would prefer several short paragraphs (1 page long max.) with a "Next page" buttons. Why put everything on one page. Too long or too short is never good. Smth. in between would do.

Good luck!

[Amsterdam]

Besides useability, I think there would be an impact on SEO too and it would be interesting to hear an opinion from the SE experts.

T

[darkstar]

I would prefer a long page because it`s easyer to read. I prefer to scroll then to click next page for several times.
I don`t know for sure if there is any impact on SEO , but I don`t think so...

regards

[kk5st]

It depends on the content. If the content requires scrolling several viewports worth, and the content can be logically broken into sections, then you could consider using multiple pages. Else keep it all on one.

A long article is positively augmented by the addition of a linked ToC at the beginning. That will allow the reader to skip down to the section of interest.

Do avoid splitting an article that does not have clear break-points.

cheers,

gary