1 Long Article or Multiple Shorter Ones?

Hi,


I'm adding content to one of my sites and was wondering, is it better to write 1 extensive article about a topic, or split it up into smaller chunks each with it's own page?

I realize that if you break it up into multiple pages then you have more opportunity to optimize it for a specific keyphrase.

However wouldn't having 1 extensive article make it more likely that people will link to your article as a reference, which could in turn lead to it being more beneficial due to the increased number of links?

Examples of the long articles I wrote is this page about domain registration (1377 words long) or this one about banner ads (1926 words long). These are aimed at beginners btw...

Would it be best to keep it as it is or break it up?

What is your view?


Thanks,

Hodge

 

Break it up. If its long, you may dilute the keywords. Also a long article is difficult to read.

 

Break it up, 500-600 words is around the optimal length right now for "spider food" articles.

 

More articles = more pages = more keywords to search = more visitors

 

I agree. It's all about numbers. Besides, people prefer articles that are short, sweet, and too the point. They want free information, they want it now, and they want to understand as soon as possible. My articles tend to be roughly 400-500 words.

 

should be 400 to 500 words of each article...

 

Awesome stuff - well I guess I'll break it up into shorter ones then. Thanks for the advice guys

 

Shorter articles are the way to go for the best impact. Plus for me it's easier on me to generate short articles instead of a really long one.

 

I don't remember to have been brave enough once to read a 1300 words article. And as others said, yes you should split them making sure you target one or two keywords per article.

 

I would suggest to break up the article into smaller ones in terms of SEO. However, there are many pros / cons on doing this. Darren has blogged about this issue pretty comprehensively:

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/04/01/long-posts-vs-series-of-posts/

 

Thanks for the link - it's good to read what the professionals think about this.

Rep added