See How and Why They Make Us Do More Clicks [Note]

The rumors that Google takes Google Analytics data into consideration when ranking websites started when, I guess, the first Panda hit.

Now I see lots of websites dividing their articles into several sub-pages to make me click, click and click. I think this is not only about SEO, but about selling ads as well, however I don’t always like it.

Here is an example: an article about the history of the Superman logo at BusinessInsider.com.

What I don’t like about this particular page?

When I enter the page, I don’t see a single logo, but is forced to click one more link which, by the way, I found later then I was expecting. What I see is an into, which I don't even want to read.

I understand implementing this in order to make the pages load faster. The Superman logos are really big and it would really take much time to load all of them at once, but still I think they could have fit the images size to the screen, because I still have to crawl down to see the logo itself.

Another example is this article on Diabetes diet by Joy Bauer, where the pagination isn’t really necessary (because the page is not heavy), but still there are ten more pages which tell you what to eat if you have type 2 diabetes. Well, this a smart move and it works, judging from the Google Analytics data [yes, a hint is here]. 

Unlike Superman Logo article, all content here perfectly fits the screen and easily digestible. Besides, when you click Next, you enter another page (not another section of the same page) which tells Google Analytics people seeing lots of pages which equals to “people like this website because they spend much time”.