Number of forum posts per topic page

[Peter264]

When optimizing a forum topic page for SEO, would it be better to have a higher number of posts per page than seperating the topic up into multiple pages?

For example, out of the box a forum may display 15 posts per topic page - would there be any SEO benifit in changing that number to say 30 posts per page?  I.e. more content per page and decreasing unnecessary "page 2, page 3, page 4"... etc.

Your thoughts and comments are most appreciated.

[gfiorelli1]

30 posts per page surely increase the long tail of the forum page and can solve the pagination problem, even though that issue could be solved using the first forum thread page as canonical or using the noindex,follow meta robots tag in the pages 2,3...

[Alex-Harford]

What would be best for the user? I think it's about finding a balance between load speed and content without spreading the content too thinly across multiple pages, and being aware that constantly clicking to the next page can be time-consuming. Think about how the forum will be used - will people regularly come back to read one or two new posts? If so they won't want 40 posts loading on a page. Do users often make lengthy or short posts?

Things like signatures and images will slow the load speed down, so take that into account when you come to a decision. Perhaps make signatures visible to logged in users only, if applicable and possible? While 'content is king' faster speeds do have an SEO benefit too.

It's a balancing act, perhaps start with 15 and adjust that over time when you start to get a feel for the content that's posted.

[Peter264]

Thank you for your responses.

I think 30 is a reasonable number as we currently have 15 per page.

Also, for the numbered pages - what would be preferred titles:

"Page Title (Page 2)"

or

"Page 2 for Page Title"

[Alex-Harford]

In normal paginated results it makes sense to have the page number first for pages 2+ as page one has the highest SEO value - you want to show Google that that is the most important page for the topic term. Adding the page number at the start of the title tag for pages 2+ gives an indication to the search engines that they're not quite as important as the first page. I imagine this will more often than not be the case for forum postings too, though there's always a chance the best content will be posted pages along the thread.

[Peter264]

Thanks for that reply.  What about paginated META Description tags?  Remove them completely?

[Alex-Harford]

Either add the page number at the beginning or remove them completely, yeah. Rand recommended removing them here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/pagination-best-practices-for-seo-user-experience

[KeriMorgret]

I'd also consider page load time. Do you have people that put 40 pictures in one post? Then you may not want 30 posts displaying, as that could really bog down page load time. My forum usually has only a couple of pictures per post, if any, but I do sometimes get ones that have 20-40 pictures.