How many is too many?

Hello again: (I’ve already gotten some Great info on this list… thanks Andy and others!)
I have typepad. I can set it to show between 1 and 100 posts on each page. I have it set to 100.
I figured that the max setting would show people plenty of info, would be good for SEs ’cause content is king and there’s more content that way, and I thought Hey, once people are here, let ’em scroll away. Besides, the delivery of Typepad blogs is extremely fast, so 100 doesn’t take any more time to load than a lesser setting.
but there’s got to be better reasoning than these.
What’s best in your opinion?


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7 responses to “How many is too many?”

  1. Dane Carlson Avatar

    I think one hundred posts on your front page is too many. To Google, one of the defining characteristics of a weblog is that it is constantly being updated with new content and outgoing links. In Google parlance, this is “Freshness.” I like to maximize this quality by only showing as many posts as I regularly make in one week on my weblog’s front page.
    There is also some question as to how much of a long page Google will read. Take your weblog for instance:
    Right now on your front page, there’s a post from December 16, 2004 titled “Quotes on Lack”. If I do a Google site search that title, Google returns your front page, and the permalink for that entry (in addition to other pages on your site that might be relevant.
    But, if I scroll all the way to the bottom and repeat the exercise for the last post on the page “Are You Mentor Material?”, Google doesn’t return your site’s front page, only the permalink. IMHO, this means that Google is ignoring the content on your long page after some point. Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly where that point is, but with some experimentation, it’d shouldn’t be hard to find.

  2. Business Opportunities Weblog Avatar

    How Many Weblog Posts Are Too Many On Your Front Page

    Matt Perelstein, guest blogging on Easy Bake Weblogs asked: I have typepad. I can set it to show between 1 and 100 posts on each page. I have it set to 100. I figured that the max setting would show…

  3. Andy Avatar
    Andy

    I’d say keep it to maybe three or four screen’s worth of scrolling.

  4. Darren Avatar

    100 is overkill and it will eat up your bandwidth and frustrate the hell out of your readers.
    I do between 7 and 10 depending on how long they are. I agree with the three or four screens worth of scrolling but would say two or three….
    Yes Google does like content – but to have 100 posts would just confuse it. Too many topics, too many keywords etc.

  5. sam Avatar

    I’d say definitely no more than 10-20 posts on the front page, depending on the length of each post. The chances of someone sticking around to read that much are minute, and if they’re interested in doing so, they probably won’t mind clicking the archive links 😉

  6. Consulting Clicks Avatar

    I was trying to figure out the same thing for my new blog recently. I set mine to 30 I think. I’ll have to see how that goes and I might change it to 7 or 10. Putting 100 is definitly too much. The only reason I put 30 is because I thoughtnI would just keep a months worth at a time. I went to your site a couple of times and when I wanted to find something I had read before it was very difficult.

  7. 99beans Avatar

    I am concerned with the number of post on my front page not only as a content issue, but a design issue as well. I run a resizing three column with minimum heights set on all the colums. I designate my max number of post to fit with in that boundry. Not that more would break the site, but sence I use a colored background on one column, it would not go to the footer if I used more post. Now the number of post is also flexible based on if I have a particularly long post out front at the time. So I regularly change the min-height of my columns, as well as, the number of post on my front page (6-9 post most days).

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