Nowadays, the quality of content has become a must-have. The search engine Google has become adept at knowing whether the content really serves any purpose for people or is just there for the sake of being there. Pages that have content which is irrelevant or thin, pages that have duplicate or auto-generated text, and pages that have extremely promotional content are not only annoying for users but are also at the risk of being penalized by search engines.
What Is Thin Content?
The main goal of Google is to deliver users search results which truly comply with their expectations, and it is called search intent. Thin content refers to such pages which do not provide that.
The length of the page is not always the criterion of thin content. On one hand, it is true that too short pages cannot rank well, and on the other hand, sometimes long pages are not required. It depends on the depth of the required information which should be provided to the visitors according to the topic and search intent.
When Google detects thin content using different algorithms or manually, it penalizes sites by reducing their rankings and visibility, causing increased bounce rate. In the long term, it will decrease the amount of backlinks and trust of the users.
Types of Thin Content
1. Content That Isn’t Helpful
Thin content comes in many different varieties. One type of thin content are pages that lack necessary details.. When you need to write about complicated issues, like tax rules or regulations concerning finance, it is almost impossible to give a full answer in two hundred words. People will exit the website because of this, and it is known to Google.
The problem with the depth of the content is not only connected to user experience but with the ranking possibilities of thin pages too. Short pages without any depth do not have chances to get long-tail keywords and rank well against already existing top-ranking pages. For instance, the article titled “How to Increase Your Credit Score” in 300 words will be far less useful than an article with details on specific strategies and tips in more than 1,000 words. Another example would be a brief blog post about “How to Fill Taxes in India” in 300 words.
An easy trick is to verify the right depth prior to writing and see what’s ranked at the top for your target keyword. If they are 1,500-2,000 words in length, a 400-word blog post won’t have a chance of competing.
2. Poorly Written Content
Quality writing has an important role in the way users and Google assess your website. Content that includes grammatical mistakes, vague sentences, and repetitive use of keywords can be perceived as unprofessional and unreliable. Think about how you will feel when reading a product description or guide full of mistakes.
If you have a product page with such text as “Shoes good quality buy now cheap price best offer,” you understand what an unprofessional and spammy text looks like. On the other hand, “These running shoes are made with breathable mesh and cushioned soles, perfect for training” is more understandable, interesting, and reliable.
In addition, quality writing is crucial when you post something on your blog or in an article because even the most interesting ideas will fail when they are poorly written.
Useful hint: Always proofread your text or use special tools such as Grammarly and Hemingway.
3. Low-Quality Affiliate Content
Affiliate-filled content has often been categorized as thin content. However, this does not mean that all affiliate content is bad; in fact, content will be problematic only if it’s created simply to sell the products without providing any value.
Think about an article titled “Top 10 Fitness Gadgets”, which is written by a person who never tried out any of the gadgets. Affiliate-filled content is generally nothing more than a repetition of generic information from the product description, and it provides zero value to the user. The same goes for pages full of advertisements and “Buy Now” calls to action.
But there are cases where affiliate content works perfectly well, especially when it’s authentic, based on experiences, and useful. Inclusion of actual product comparisons, benefits, drawbacks or personal experiences proves that your content is valuable and different from what others offer.
Quick Tip: If you write affiliate and review content, don’t try to sell something, but rather aim at earning people’s trust. Use your personal experience or data to make your content valuable and unique.
4. Duplicate Content
Duplicate content is among the most frequent problems that can negatively affect the SEO performance of a website. Simply said, it means a set of text blocks that are either the same or almost the same in different pages on your website or elsewhere.
Although duplicate content doesn’t mean thin by default, having too many instances of it can be a warning sign. To illustrate this, let’s assume that you have an insurance website and write two pages entitled “Best Car Insurance in Florida” and “Best Car Insurance in South Carolina.” If these pages are written using the exact same content except for the change of the state name, then chances are good that Google will be unable to treat these pages as valuable or different from one another.
For Google, duplicated content complicates the selection process and makes it difficult to figure out which page deserves to be ranked higher. Often, neither page ranks high because of that. Moreover, the reused content may not fit the particular search intent related to the keyword and will thus fall into the category of thin content.
To prevent this issue from arising, each page on your website needs to have a unique purpose and target a unique keyword that would be addressed by truly valuable and informative content. In other words, when a user clicks on a link to the Florida insurance guide, he expects tips tailored to this particular state.
There are different ways to detect the problem of duplicate content – you can use plagiarism checkers and SEO audit tools to identify it regardless of whether it comes from within your website or an outside source.
Quick Tips to Resolve Duplicate Content Issues
- Use canonical tags to tell Google which page is preferable.
- Revise the content on each page such that the search intent on every page is different from one another.
- Combine similar pages into one ultimate guide wherever possible.
- Perform periodic audits on your website for detecting duplicate content.
5. Doorway Pages
A doorway page is an insignificant page created with the intention of ranking for a certain keyword but does not provide any valuable information to the user. It mostly acts as a means of directing users to other web pages.
For example, consider an insurance company that creates multiple identical pages such as:
- Best Car Insurance in Charleston, South Carolina
- Best Car Insurance in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
- Best Car Insurance in Kiawah, South Carolina
If these pages have duplicate content that merely replaces city names in each instance, then these are doorway pages and are classified as thin content by Google.
However, if each page has some city-specific information like the cost of insurance premiums, providers or regulations unique to each city, then these contents provide value to the users. They become valuable content instead of being just thin doorway pages.
Tip: Make sure the city or product-based pages have something unique about them.
6. Pages With Spammy or Irrelevant Links
Pages that are overcrowded with irrelevant links could be considered thin content since they distract users and decrease the credibility of a page. Google values pages that deliver valuable content, and too many outbound links from those websites show that a page is more interested in manipulation rather than user experience.
Consider an example of a blog post dedicated to healthy recipes. This blog includes outbound links to some gambling sites or unrelated online stores even if the article itself is high quality. In such a case, the presence of those links decreases user trust and affects SEO negatively.
Quick Tip: Always link only to those resources that could bring some benefit to users. Link to credible sources, articles, or references. Try to avoid too many promotional or affiliate links since they might appear to be spam.
7. Pages with overwhelming ads
When websites have an excess of advertisements on them, they can detract users from the core content and can even be considered to be poor content by Google. An excess of advertisements can affect dwell time, increase the bounce rate, and negatively affect ranking.
For example, news articles that use banners after every paragraph or recipe websites that have pop-ups before listing instructions can annoy visitors.
Tip: Advertisements should be kept to a minimum and should not dominate content.
Conclusion
Thin content can silently work against your website’s success by having a negative impact on ranking, credibility, and other metrics. Blog posts lacking depth, doorway pages, duplicated content, and spammy links – all of them lower the value of the website. The trick to staying away from thin content lies in putting quality above all. Create content that thoroughly responds to the query, gives an insight, and maintains the reader’s interest. In doing so, not only will you comply with Google standards, but also gain the trust of your visitors.
