Thin Content
What is Thin Content?
Thin content is content that is expressed through written words on websites that provides little to no value to the user.
Examples of Thin Content
Here are some examples of what Google considers to be thin content:
- low-quality affiliate pages
- pages with very little or no content
- doorway pages (inserting results for particular phrases while sending visitors to a different page)
- short keyword-stuffed pages
- scrapped and spun content
- non-original pages with duplicate content
FAQ
What Google algorithm updates fought again thin content?
The May Day update on May 1, 2010 and the Panda update in 2011. These updates cracked down on thin content, content farms, as well as other quality issues.
Is there a Google penalty for thin content?
Yes, there is a manual penalty for thin content that was introduced in 2013. In your site manually reviewed by Google and the penalty is applied, you will get a notice about "Thin content with little or no added value" in Google Search Console.
How can I recover from the "thin content with little or no added value" penalty?
Review your content and either remove the pages, or add additional value to the effected page with unique content that reader will find valuable.
Does Thin Content Help With SEO?
No, Google favours the best results that match the search intent of the user and servers up popular and useful content in its search results. There was a point years ago were implementing thin content got some short-term results, however, Google identified and put a stop to this practice.
How to Find Thin Content on Your Website?
The easiest way to find thin content on your website is to use a tool, like an SEO audit. Most audit reports will identify pages with low word count as well as duplicate content issues.
Should I Stop Creating Thin Content?
Yes, there is very little value in thin content and you can actually be preventing your pages from rankings, or even worse, putting yourself at risk to potential search engine penalties.
Instead, focus on in-depth, quality content that people (and search engines) value. Google has become much smarter at learning and distinguishing pages that are valued by users by evaluating metrics like bounce rate, scroll rate, time spent on the site and page and clickthrough rate.
Are you wasting your time creating content that is not getting you results? Digital Shift can create 100% original, quality content designed for your market. Get in touch to learn more.
