[Sigia-l] Long scrolling pages and Usability

[Avi Rappoport]

For search purposes, chunking the content into separate pages is 
actually much better.  Most articles have sections on various topics, 
and are more likely to be "findable" because in sub pages because 
search engines tend to reward shorter more focused pages.

You're also less likely to get false hits, where a page is not 
actually relevant, because there are simply fewer terms to cause 
trouble.

Imagine an article about traveling to Djibouti.  Probably, cuisine is 
not the main focus of the piece, so if someone searches for 
Djibouti food   the article might get swamped by others covering 
refugee relief. Simillarly, searching for   river banks   would bring 
up the whole thing if the transport section includes the word 
"river", and the finance section includes "banks", although the it 
doesn't say a thing about river banks as such.

I come at this from a desire to get the best results for searchers. 
Any public site should also think about Search Engine Optimization -- 
not only are short pages likely to get better ranking, chunking your 
content gives you simply more chances to rank in the web search 
engines.

Avi


At 11:57 AM -0500 3/9/04, Thomas.Donehower at eurorscg.com wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I'm trying to make a decision about long scrolling pages (equivalent of 3
>printed 8.5X11 pages or longer). My feeling is that they are OK and are in
>fact probably better than separate pages especially if the piece was meant
>to be read as a whole. However, I have no data to support my position. I
>am leaning toward long scrolling pages for individual article-type content
>pages for these reasons:
>
>1. I don't have to introduce another form of navigation
>2. Easier for the user to print
>3. I believe it's easier for the user to scan and read as a whole
>
>If anyone has any thoughts on the pros and cons of long scrolling pages,
>please weigh in. Again, I am talking about "Article-type pages" not
>category or home pages. Imagine you're reading an article online and you
>see the text continue below the fold, you scroll (or maybe you dont?) and
>see the page continues for a couple more page lengths. Is this bad? Is
>there a better way that this content should be served up to you as a user?
>
>
>I did scan IAWIKI and the archives, but didn't find anything.
>
>-TD

-- 
   Avi Rappoport, Search Engine Consultant <mailto:avirr at searchtools.com> 
   Complete Guide to Search Engines for Web Sites and Intranets
             <http://www.searchtools.com>