Why You Shouldn’t Write Your Articles In Parts

While researching for some topics I was writing on, I found what I thought might be a good article. The headline indicated it was exactly on with what I was searching for. SEO clearly worked for this author because it was number 2 in the search engines for the keywords I searched for. There was only one small problem with this article: it had a “Part 2” at the end of the headline. I usually avoid parts articles like the plague with rare exceptions of seeing them on a blog where they are listed in a logical order. It’s just too much trouble.
However, I really need some quick and easy research on this topic so I decided to give it a quick click to look for the part 1. I scanned the article and nowhere did it link to part one. So then as a last ditch effort, I thought perhaps this Part 2 that I had located would give me enough information to help me out.
I begin scanning it and from the first paragraph, I didn’t know what the writer was talking about. They had clearly continued directly from part one except there was no part one to be found. This means readers such as myself who stumbled upon the part 2 only, have no idea what you’re talking about. I read on a little more just in case but it was difficult to follow with no subheadings, bullets or lists or other methods of making the information within clearer to read.
I then clicked away and looked at other search engine results. This article clearly wasn’t going to cut it for me. Sure, I could have searched for the exact title with the Part One attached and probably found the beginning of this author’s thoughts but why should I have to? I’ve never even heard of this writer before and you’re making me go through this much trouble just to try to read your information? It’s clearly not worth it and I found better, clearer information elsewhere.
Now this writer of the dreaded parts article may have had some useful information to give. They could have been an absolute genius in the topic at hand but when it’s presented in such a difficult way, readers will rarely be able to experience it. I encourage writers not to write their articles in “parts”. Instead, if you have too much to say for one article, split the extra ideas off into articles of their own. They can still be read together as a series but should work as stand-alone articles as well.
On that same note, if you are going to write “parts” articles, be sure they clearly link to one another and that each part still has an intro, body and conclusion that are clear to read in case someone should stumble upon only one part to your article. Make it easy for your readers if you want to keep the attention of your readers. It shouldn’t be “work” to try to read what you write.