Thin Content: What it is? Why it Hurts SEO and How to Fix It?

If you’ve invested in SEO or digital marketing to improve the visibility of your business website online, then you might have heard the following phrase — content is king.

But do you know the reason why content is considered king in the world of SEO? 

It’s simple — high-quality content can help a website secure top rankings in Google SERPs and attract more visitors. 

However, not all content is created equal, and if your content is “thin”, it may actually jeopardise your SEO performance. 

Ever since the Panda and the recent Helpful Content update, Google has been fiercely pushing down low-quality content, which is one of the many types of thin content (more on this later) in its search results pages.

So, if you want to attain and maintain top rankings for your target keywords, you must avoid publishing thin content on your website at all costs!

Not sure what is thin content in SEO? Fret not!

In this post, we have explained what thin content is, its types, different ways to identify it, and possible solutions to fix it.

What is Thin Content in SEO?

Thin content refers to pages or articles that have little to no value for users or search engines. These pages often contain only a small amount of text, lack relevant information, or provide duplicate or low-quality content. 

In general, thin content is created with the aim of generating more traffic to a website without offering valuable information or providing a positive user experience. 

But as we mentioned earlier, search engines like Google are constantly improving their algorithms to become more effective at detecting thin content and providing users with the best possible search results. 

As a result, websites with thin content are increasingly being penalised in search engine rankings. 

Therefore, it’s essential for website owners to learn how to identify and fix thin content in order to achieve better rankings and improve their website’s visibility online.

Different Types of Thin Content

To learn how to identify thin content, first, you need to understand the different types of thin content to ensure you don’t accidentally or unintentionally hurt your SEO efforts.

1. Lacks Helpfulness or Depth

A common sign of thin content is the lack of usefulness or depth. This type of content often contains very little amount of information and fails to answer a question or offer any unique insights on a particular topic.

This type of thin content can be particularly harmful to your SEO performance because search engines are becoming increasingly effective at identifying pages with little to no value for users.

Even if a web page or article has a lot of content but lacks helpfulness or depth, it still won’t rank well in Google search results.

The truth is, for any piece of content to attain top rankings in Google SERPs, it must address all doubts and answer all questions that the searchers may have to completely satisfy the search intent. 

2. Repetitive or Duplicate Content

Another common type of thin content are articles or pages with repetitive or duplicate content. This usually occurs when a website has more than one web page or article with identical or similar content, or content simply copied from other websites.

When there is duplicate content on a website, it often leads to keyword cannibalisation. This, in turn, results in search engines not being able to decide which page or article to show in the search results for relevant search terms.

For example, if an article has a length of 2000 words but repeatedly presents the same information, it may still be classified as thin content in the eyes of Google. This is because neither of the content versions provides any real or significant value to the searchers.

If you have duplicate content on your website, Google and other search engines are highly likely to demote your website’s rankings because it goes against their guidelines. Hence it is recommended that you get rid of duplicate content on your website and only have the most unique and useful content.

3. Scrapped or Syndicated Content

Plagiarising or stealing other people’s content is a big no-no and it could even get your website penalised by Google. 

This is because scrapped or syndicated content does not only offer any new value but stealing content from others is simply outright wrong. For these reasons, Google never ranks a website that has scrapped, stolen, or syndicated content from other websites. 

So, if you want to secure top positions in search results for your target keywords, you must avoid scraping or syndicating other people’s content at all costs.

4. Has Too Many Ads

Pages or articles with too many ads can also be considered thin content. 

For example, if the ads on a particular page or article take up more space than the actual content, then that page or article will be deemed as thin content.

Similarly, if the ads are placed in a place that interferes with the searcher's ability to access or read content, it may get flagged as thin content.

As a result, your content might be marked as spam and lose rankings if the ad issue is not fixed.

If you want to avoid creating this type of thin content, you must focus on creating content that provides genuine value to your readers, and limit the number of ads on each page.

5. Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing refers to the practice of overusing specific keywords in an attempt to manipulate search engine results for that target keyword. 

However, creating this type of thin content will only harm your website’s rankings in search results and your site may get penalised for it. 

Besides this, keyword stuffing also makes any piece of content difficult to read and understand for searchers. This is because the main focus of such content is cramming as many keywords as possible rather than providing helpful and informative content.

Furthermore, when searchers see that your content is clearly designed to manipulate search engine rankings, they may view your website as less trustworthy, which can jeopardise your reputation.

6. Presence of Doorway Pages

Doorway pages are basically web pages that are created specifically for the purpose of ranking highly in SERPs without providing any value to the users.

Just like keyword stuffing and other types of thin content, doorway pages too provide little or no unique content and use black hat SEO tactics like cloaking or redirecting to try and manipulate search engine algorithms. 

Publishing this type of thin content often always leads to a Google thin content penalty when search engines discover it. Plus, they can also harm the overall user experience of visitors to your website.

This is why it is generally recommended to avoid creating doorway pages at all costs and instead focus on creating high-quality and valuable content that’s helpful to your target audience.

How to Identify Thin Content?

Now that you have learned what thin content is and its different types, let’s talk about some of the effective ways to instantly identify thin content on your website.

Afterwards, we will also discuss the possible solutions to fix thin content.

Method #1. Run a Content Audit

One of the most effective ways to identify thin content is to conduct a content audit. A content audit is a site-wide content review across your entire website. 

By examining your website's pages, you can identify those that have thin content, duplicate content, or other quality issues. To make this task easier, you can even use various tools such as Google Analytics 4, SEMrush, or Screaming Frog to conduct your audit. 

Ideally, you should review each page on your website and look for pages with a low word count or that provide little value. Then, make a list of pages that need improvements and start working on each page one by one.

Method #2. Look for Similar URLs

As we discussed earlier, duplicate content can harm your website’s SEO performance. But sometimes, it can be extremely difficult to spot pages with duplicate content. 

Fortunately, there is an easy way to find pages with duplicate content and that is by looking for similar URLs on your website. For example, if you find that two or more pages on your website have similar URLs, these pages are likely to have similar or duplicate content as well. 

Even if you can’t find pages with similar URLs, there might be pages on your website with similar content. To identify such pages, you can use tools like Copyscape or Siteliner to check for duplicate content and take the necessary steps to eliminate it. 

Method #3. Check Primary Keywords

Another surefire way to identify thin content is by checking the primary keywords of each page on your website. Search engines like Google heavily rely on primary keywords to understand what each web page is about. 

Now, if your web pages are lacking primary keywords or targeting irrelevant keywords, it won’t stand a chance to rank higher on Google. 

So, it is highly recommended to check the primary keywords of all pages on your website and make sure that each page is targeting a specific and relevant keyword. 

Method #4. Having Duplicate Meta Descriptions

Having duplicate meta descriptions is another indicator of thin content on your website. If more than one page on your website have the same meta description, search engines may see those pages as duplicate. 

This, in turn, can negatively impact the search engine rankings for those pages. That’s why it’s extremely important to check and verify that no two pages on your website have the same meta description. 

In case you identify any pages with similar or the same meta descriptions, make sure to write a unique meta description for each identified page.

Method #5. Use a Website Crawler

Website crawlers can help to identify thin content in several ways. For the uninitiated, a website crawler, also known as a web robot or web spider, is a software program that systematically browses the web and indexes information from websites.

When it comes to identifying thin content, website crawlers help by analysing each web page on your website and flagging pages with a low word count, missing metadata, or duplicate content. 

As a result, it can help website owners to take steps to either remove or improve the pages with thin content so that they can attain higher rankings in Google search results.

Method #6. Read your Content

Another way to identify thin content on your website is to simply read it. Sometimes, all the other methods may not prove to be effective, which is why it is best to just read the content.

To do this, we recommend thinking of yourself as the reader and going through the content to see if it is really answering the question and fulfilling the search intent of the keyword. 

If it does, your content may not be thin content after all. But if you feel that the content is not providing as much value as it should or does not offer depth or breadth of the topic, it might be because the content is thin.

How to Fix Thin Content on Your Website?

Fixing thin content on your website is critically important and should be done as soon as possible. 

This is because having thin content on your website not only deranks your website in search results, it also negatively impacts its reputation among the target audience.

So, whenever you spot thin content on your website, you should implement any of the following solutions.

Solution #1. Delete

One of the simplest solutions to fix thin content on your website is to delete it. You should consider this solution when the thin content you’ve identified either offers no value or is outdated.

When you delete such thin content from your website, it will significantly improve your website’s user experience as well as search engine rankings. 

However, before deleting thin content pages from your website, make sure that they don’t have any inbound links, traffic, or social shares. If they have, then you might want to reassess their value and keep it by implementing solution number two, three, or four.

Solution #2. Expand

Another solution to fix thin content is expanding it. This solution is recommended when the thin content on your website offers some value but is still considered thin. 

In this case, you need to add more content and make sure that it offers additional value and is helpful to the readers. 

Say, you have a blog post on how to hire plumbers in Melbourne but the content is not as informative and helpful to the readers. In this case, you can consider analysing the content posted by other plumbers in the Melbourne area to understand what they’re doing differently to make their content more valuable and update your thin content accordingly. 

Solution #3. Combine

If you have multiple pages with thin content on similar topics, you can always consider combining them into a single, comprehensive page. By doing so, not only can you consolidate your content but also improve user experience by providing all the information they need in one place. 

Let’s say that you have two similar blog posts on how to install the Elementor WordPress theme & how to install the StudioPress WordPress theme. 

In this situation, you can basically combine the two blog posts, tweaking the title to How to Install a WordPress Theme and explaining the installation process for both themes under the same blog post and even for other themes as well.

Solution #4. Rewrite

Last but not least, if you have pages or blog posts with either irrelevant or outdated content, you can always rewrite them if the overall topic is still relevant and searched by the users. 

For example, let’s assume that you have a blog post on Best Social Media Platforms for SaaS Marketing and it includes Google+ as one of the platforms. 

Now, since the Google+ platform was shut down in April 2019, you will have to rewrite the content about the Google+ platform and update it with another social media platform.

Additionally, you might also need to add new social media platforms like TikTok or Clubhouse as they have proven to be highly effective in business marketing.

In short, when you’re considering rewriting outdated content, make sure to conduct thorough audience research and find out their current needs, pain points, and interests. 

This will help to optimise your content for your target audience, which will improve its overall user experience and search engine visibility.

What to Do After You’ve Fixed Thin Content

Fixing thin content on your website is an important step in improving the overall quality of your site and providing value to your audience. 

However, once you’ve implemented the solutions to fix thin content, it is equally important to take an additional step to ensure that your content improves your search engine rankings and attracts new visitors to your site.

After fixing an instance of thin content, make sure to submit a manual request for indexing in Google Search Console (GSC). 

This is because when you update or add new content to your website, Google may not immediately crawl and index it. This means that your updated content may not appear in search results until Google crawls and indexes it.

To speed up the process and ensure that your updated content is indexed as quickly as possible, you can submit a manual request for indexing in GSC. This will notify Google that you have updated your content and prompt them to crawl and index it.

To submit a manual request for indexing, log in to your Google Search Console account and select the URL Inspection tool. Enter the URL of the page you want to request indexing for and click the "Request Indexing" button. Google will then crawl the page and add it to its index.

And once the updated content is indexed successfully, monitor its performance and keep track of any changes in traffic, bounce rates, and engagement metrics to see if your efforts have been effective. 

For this, you can use tools such as Google Analytics and SEMrush to track your website's traffic and monitor changes in rankings in search results.

Find & Fix Thin Content on your Website!

Thin content can be detrimental to the success of your website and can hurt your SEO efforts. It not only fails to provide value to your audience but can also lead to penalties from search engines.

So, it is of utmost importance to fix thin content on your website as quickly as possible. And whether you choose to delete, expand, combine, or rewrite your thin content, it is important to remember that quality should always be the top priority. 

By providing informative and engaging content that meets the needs of your audience, you can establish your authority in your industry and attract more visitors to your site.

FAQs

What is the thin content penalty?

The thin content penalty is a negative impact on a website's search engine ranking caused by having low-quality content. For instance, if a website has a significant amount of thin content, it can be penalised by search engines, resulting in lower rankings and reduced visibility in search results.

Is thin content bad for SEO?

Yes, thin content is bad for SEO because this type of content does not provide value to users and can negatively impact a website's search engine rankings.

What is thin and duplicate content in SEO?

Thin and duplicate content are two types of low-quality content that can harm a website's SEO efforts. Thin content refers to pages on a website that have little or no valuable content. Duplicate content refers to content that appears in more than one place on the internet.

How do I fix thin content in SEO?

Fixing thin content in SEO involves improving the quality and quantity of content on a website to provide value to users and meet search engine standards.

How many words consider thin content?

There is no specific word count that constitutes thin content. Thin content refers to pages on a website that have little or no valuable content, regardless of their word count. This can include pages with only a few sentences or paragraphs or pages with longer content that is not relevant to the website's topic or audience.

What negatively affects SEO?

There are many factors that negatively affect SEO performance such as thin content, duplicate content, bad user experience, slow website loading speed, lack of mobile responsiveness, broken links, and inconsistent metadata.

Does content length matter for SEO?

Content length can impact SEO, but it's not the only factor that matters. In the past, longer content was often considered better for SEO because it had more opportunities to include keywords and provide more information to search engines. However, search engines like Google now prioritise high-quality, valuable content over content that simply meets a specific word count.