Best setting for discussions per page (SEO/Useability)

[Mr Lucky]

I have increased the number of discussions to 55 per page.

However I wondered if this would have any impact on (1) SEO or (2) useability.

I am presuming that it could even be good for SEO, or maybe the appropriate pagination we have on xenforo makes the amount of content on page 1 irrelevant.

Re: useabilty there would be more scrolling but nobody has objected. (Perhaps partly as I have a Back to Top link which avoids a lot of scrolling)

Any thoughts gratefully received?

 

[rdn]

40 threads per page for me.

 

[Mr Lucky]

40 threads per page for me.

Is there a specific reason for 40?

 

[rdn]

Is there a specific reason for 40?

Just my own choice

 

[FredC]

Dang guys that seems like a lot.. i start my own forums at ten and eventually when the quantity of content went up i adjust that number to 20 but ive never went over that threshold. I feel like any more is cheating members with slow connections, and members with faster connections shouldn't have a problem loading pages a bit more frequently..

 

[rdn]

Forum View or Thread Listing is not heavy page.
With only small avatars.

 

[FredC]

Forum View or Thread Listing is not heavy page.
With only small avatars.

Ahh i was thinking of thread replies.. Either way the answer is still the same.. 20.. i guess it wouldnt be a big deal to bump that up to possibly 30 but 40 still seems like a lot to me.. but then again i guess its something ive never payed attention to on other forums so i guess its not a big deal either way.. To me at least..

 

[sbj]

I hate forums with just 10 or 20 replies per thread.
I always leave them as soon as possible.

I think 50 is the best option here.

 

[rdn]

I think @Mr Lucky means Discussion List/Forum View/Thread Listing not post per thread pages.

 

[Mr Lucky]

I think @Mr Lucky means Discussion List/Forum View/Thread Listing not post per thread pages.

Yes, I did mean the thread list, but my question should also apply to posts per thread, in fact that is possibly the bigger one for SEO, though perhaps with correct pagination it makes no difference (someone please correct me if I'm wrong on that)

I suppose for the user it's a question of what's better (or rather what's not worse)

Scrolling a lot, or scrolling less but clicking on more next page links

 

[tajhay]

doesnt bumping up the number of posts per page decrease the number of times google ads is displayed (if turned on in your sites), and therefore click thrus?

 

[Ridemonkey]

doesnt bumping up the number of posts per page decrease the number of times google ads is displayed (if turned on in your sites), and therefore click thrus?

It decreases the number of ad impressions but that doesn't always relate to click-through metrics.

Yes, it does decrease the number of page views... but you could take that to its logical extreme and restrict it to 3 posts per page or something. In the end, you need to do what's manageable for the users.

My users generally want more posts per page. I currently have mine set to 40.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

I have my thread lists on 50 and thread posts on 25.

doesnt bumping up the number of posts per page decrease the number of times google ads is displayed (if turned on in your sites), and therefore click thrus?

Like @Ridemonkey outlined, they aren't the same thing. You will still only get the amount of impressions based on actual readers of your site. Having them read an additional few pages isn't really doing a whole bunch for the user.

My metrics are very clear with ad positions. First post, highest click through, next one down, half the first, and subsequent ads further down halve that again, pretty much.

I have four 300 x 250 ads running at intervals down my 25 post per page, if the first position has 1000 clicks, the next one around post 5 has about 500 clicks, the third one at post 11 is like 200 clicks, the fourth at post 17 has maybe 70 clicks. It progressively gets less, from half to slightly more than halving.

That first ad, top position, is the most expensive on nearly every site for good reason. Trying to fake high impressions won't sell you ads, as advertisers won't see the associated click through in the first month, thus dropping you as fast as they found you.

 

[jauburn]

I think we should take every opportunity to reduce the number of times users have to click. So the more the better. OTOH, if you have ads tied to each page of threads, then your goal is ad revenue more than user convenience. So tired of that.

 

[jauburn]

There may also be a performance consideration with increasing number of messages per thread (and perhaps less so with threads per page). I'd like to know what the tipping point would be, performance-wise.

 

[jauburn]

I'd like to resuscitate this thread to hopefully get other admins' settings.

I would like to have the most threads per page as possible without impacting performance. My testing shows that many users do not click past the first page of threads, so the ones that fall to pages 2 -> infinity typically get forgotten or found only through a search.

Ideally one would have a constant refresh of threads as one got to the bottom, but I understand that type of feature may be difficult with the current software's cataloguing setup.

Back to the topic: I've found 40 induces a very slight lag in going from page to page. I see no such lag at 35, which is where I have it set.