diff --git a/youtube_dl/__init__.py b/youtube_dl/__init__.py
index c63d62986..42ab572f2 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/__init__.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/__init__.py
@@ -317,7 +317,7 @@ def _hide_login_info(opts):
             help='print downloaded pages to debug problems(very verbose)')
     verbosity.add_option('--write-pages',
             action='store_true', dest='write_pages', default=False,
-            help='Write downloaded pages to files in the current directory')
+            help='Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in the current directory to debug problems')
     verbosity.add_option('--youtube-print-sig-code',
             action='store_true', dest='youtube_print_sig_code', default=False,
             help=optparse.SUPPRESS_HELP)