Thin Content: How To Fix It and Skyrocket Your Search Rankings
Content that was thin was the norm prior to when Google launched their Panda update in the year 2011. The algorithm was created to limit the amount of content that is not high-quality in the search results pages (SERPs) and to reward clear content that is backed by data and an insightful analysis.
In the past marketers were able to easily alter their rankings for search results relying on keyword-stuffing as well as methods of building links on farms.
For real companies, Google had to respond by launching a massive Panda update.
Although I’m not sure what signals were used to determine which websites with minimal content and those that were not websites with a lot of content began to rank higher in search engines.
Another crucial point to be aware of to be aware of is the fact that Panda algorithm doesn’t take into account one website page as a be rewarded, but rather it evaluates the quality of your website’s content overall. Therefore, there’s no room for shortcuts or simple tricks.
To be found in search results for your company’s keywords and to drive traffic from potential buyers It is essential to fix the content that is not as good, and also increase your marketing efforts.
Check out the following chart from the search console for my site. You can clearly see that I’ve nearly doubled my organic traffic over the last six months , compared to the six months prior.
There has also seen an upswing in amount of organic keyword.
It wasn’t due to the fact that I had published new content in my website, it was instead because I was able to fix existing thin content. Doesn’t that sound interesting?
Follow me until at the conclusion of this blog and I’ll share the secrets that led to these results.
What Is Thin Content and Why Is It Dangerous for Your Website?
Web pages that provide no or little value to website visitors are referred to as thin-content sites. Here are a few examples:
- 404 error page
- Pages that do not provide clear information
- Sparse content pages
- Mixed content
- Content of low-value
Let’s take a deeper look at these examples and see how they impact your rankings
1. 404 error page
If someone is on a particular webpage on your site and is presented with an error code 404 (“page isn’t there”) the page is known as the error page. For a user, Google hates it.
The primary reason behind the error message is that you’d previously had the page, however, you decided to delete it.
It is generally accepted that Google will crawl your site’s content on a regular basis, using a predetermined budget for crawling. It’s a waste of time and resources by providing your site with no content that doesn’t need to be indexed. This is an unnecessary use of the time of and money for Google.
The Panda algorithm considers it to be thin content, which affects your website’s SEO severely.
How To Fix 404s
Via Google Search Console
Log to your Google Search Console, and look at the pages with 404 errors beneath “index coverage”, and you’ll see them in the event that you have them.
Via Site: Sitename
Go to Google Search and search for Site:yoursitename.com, and you will see all your website pages that Google indexes. Following that, you’ll need to go through each page to determine which one responds with the 404 error.
It is sometimes difficult to locate 404 errors if your site has a huge quantity of sites. In these cases it is possible to seek advantage of tools such as ScreamingFrog.
There are three methods to correct 404 errors:
- You might want to consider adding new content on the page.
- Create 301 redirections to the other relevant content on your home page. (If you are using the Rankmath plugin you can add the same thing by clicking “redirections.”)
- Send your feeds of 404 links through the removal tool within Google Search Console. Google Search Console.
These are only a handful of options to identify and correct 404-related pages and keep a good ranking on Google for the site.
2. Pages That Lack Concise Information
It is vital to write short content that is in line with the intent. It’s not just a matter of writing less or more or less, it’s about making your content be in line with the user’s needs.
For instance the guide I wrote in my “Starting a Blog in India” guide is ranked top 10 on 20+ keywords that are competitive and earns affiliate earnings. But it wasn’t always such. Whatever my efforts to formulate the article, I couldn’t manage to get the article off the ground until I realized my error. Prior to that, I had written about working from home jobs in the end of the piece, which implies that I was urging prospective readers to look for alternatives to blogging and then take them off.
And Google The boss was aware of this very well.
Although you don’t need to write a 5,000-word article, make sure that the user does not leave your site with unanswered questions , and then go back to Google to find out more information or leave before they have time to do so because the content is a filler.
Here’s how you can improve your content to get greater exposure
Determine the posts or pages which are generating the least amount of traffic, or not at all, using Google Analytics. Then, you’ll be required to optimize them using more relevant content.
A majority of advertisers believe that making original content to be the most effective method to improve their SEO. However, as per Orbit Media, the percentage of bloggers who are updating their older content and increase traffic increases each year. They’ve noticed the benefits of updating old posts and should do the same. This improves the quality of your blog, and also generates more organic traffic when you include relevant keywords.
Here’s the information you’ll must look up:
- Check if any external and internal links aren’t functioning and then fix the problem.
- Optimize images by adding caption text as well as alt.
- Look for any statistics that require to be adjusted.
- Try to add additional examples.
- Are the images still relevant?
- Do you have the potential for new keyword opportunities with H1 and H2 titles?
- Are people seeking more information? Consider adding an FAQ section.
- Make your title more powerful with words that will entice potential customers.
Every page you have should be read and appreciated. Make sure you provide the greatest value to human and SEOs.
3. Sparse Pages
Although category pages can help users navigate the site better, they also come with negative impacts. For instance the search engine could think of a category page as as having thin content. It could extract an excerpt of the articles it’s carrying, which leads to a situation of duplicate content.
To fix the problem:
- Include relevant SEO titles URL, description and title the same way you would for all web pages in order to help better represent and get a higher rank for keywords.
- The number posts on each category page, or create an infinite number of pages, so you don’t have deadweight pages on your sitemap.
Similar to this, websites such as contact disclaimer, privacy policy, contact author and so on. These pages will not have much material to provide to search engines, and you could consider deindexing these pages.
4. Mixed Content
Mixed content contains the HTTP (non-secure) and HTTPS (secure) resources on a website page.
For instance, if an application is loaded through secured connections, but the embedded resources, such as images or videos, stylesheets, stylesheets, and scripts are loaded from the wrong source browsers display the message: “unsecured error.” This can affect your site’s overall SEO as well as the UX. (UX).
In the opinion of Google Google, mixed content can compromise the UX and security of your site and makes it vulnerable to attacks. Furthermore, sites that have mixed content score lower than secure ones.
Here’s how you can find and correct the mixed-content:
Do an SEMrush website audit in order to see whether your site has problems related to mixed content. Fix these issues.
Here’s how you can accomplish that: Website audit HTTPS Implementation of HTTPS
Most of the time, you can resolve this problem by working by contacting your host provider who can support your website with using the HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) standard.
If your webpages can be viewed using the two platforms (HTTP as well as HTTPS) This is considered to be duplicate content. You should configure your SSL certificate in a way that redirects websites to HTTPS solely to avoid this problem.
Don’t ignore this: HTTPS is a verified Google rank factor which means it’s a serious matter.
5. Low-Value Content
Your site could contain harmful content that is in various forms. Here are a few examples and the best way to correct them:
Scraped or Automatically Generated Content
Scraping content may be ineffective for SEO purposes and also from a readers’ viewpoint. The sooner or later that one piece of content copied can negatively impact your overall performance of your site.
Do not copy word-for-word. Making even the tiniest adjustments like changing the actual words by using synonyms or running the text through paraphrasing tools, could result in duplicate content. And Google isn’t happy about that.
As per Google scraping content from high-quality sources causes more harm than good.
While the majority of niche topics have been covered in the past but you can still bring newness to the subject. make connections and make it interesting in your manner.
Keyword-Stuffed Pages
Keyword stuffing used to be a successful strategy once, but is an awful idea today.
Making your search results appear more appealing by including keywords too many times in your content may reduce your chances of being able to be ranked. In the worst case scenario, you could be hit with the repercussions of a Google penalty.
The creation of interesting, informative content using appropriate and relevant keywords can make it easy for Google to read your website and reward it for using the appropriate keywords.
Keyword Cannibalization
It is not advisable to target the same keyword across different pages on your site. If you do you’ll have to compete with yourself, using up money on crawling and decreasing page authority, which confuses people who visit your site and the search engines.
Instead, you can combine the pages that have similar content and key words to create a huge and reliable guide.
Poor Writing
Google won’t rank your content if your writing contains grammar mistakes. Additionally, it damages the credibility of your site with users.
It is straightforward to read and gives value to your readers. If you attempt to entice users with superficial information, you’re creating the the highest bounce rate that you can for your site and allowing your content to undermine your authority.
I cannot emphasize enough how crucial it is to write clearly and remove the unnecessary nonsense in your writing. Utilize tools such as Grammarly, or outsource proofreading tasks to provide relevant, understandable and useful information.
Affiliate Pages and Ads
Websites that publish only content that is centered around affiliate products will likely be criticized because they are insufficient. They are not stocked with new content and mostly contain affiliate links or offers to advertise the product.
Same goes for advertisements. If your website is filled with more ads than quality information it could hurt your site’s rankings with little or no money.
Make sure that interstitial efforts are not the primary focus. The objective is to provide an enjoyable reading experience.
Remove Thin Content if You Can’t Fix It
In the year 2019, I had to remove 800+ pages from my blog. And since then, I’ve had significant success in terms of revenue and traffic. What exactly did I clean up?
- Attachments and content that are off-topic
- Content that wasn’t audience-centric and didn’t have a major takeaway
- Posts were created only for the purpose of building links and, in exchange, in exchange for cash
And , then I had to correct the 404s by using an Google Search Console method as described above. It’s no surprise that the majority of my SEO success stemmed by enhancing thin content.
Google will penalize your website when it contains any type of content that is not well-written and can hold you back from expanding SEO-wise.
Take your time to review your website using the tips I’ve laid out. Regularly conduct site audits to make your site’s health and boost the chances of achieving a high ranking on Google.Thin content was the norm until Google launched its Panda update in the year 2011. The algorithm was developed to limit the amount of poor-quality content appearing in the search results pages (SERPs) and encourage concise information backed by facts and a thorough analysis.
At the time marketers could easily manipulate their rankings for search results based on keyword-stuffing as well as methods of building links on farms.
For real-world businesses, Google had to respond to the threat with a strong
Panda update
.
Although I’m not sure what signals were used to identify sites with a limited amount of information and those that weren’t websites with a lot of content began to rank higher on search engines.
Another important point to remember it is Panda algorithm doesn’t look at the content of a particular website to award, but instead it examines the overall quality of your site’s content. Therefore, there’s no room for shortcuts or easy methods.
To be found by search engines for your company’s keywords and to drive traffic from potential buyers It is essential to fix poor content and scaling your marketing efforts.
Check out the chart below from the search console for my site. It is evident that I’ve nearly tripled my organic traffic over the last six months , compared to the six months prior.
There has also seen an upswing in amount of organic search terms.
It wasn’t just because I posted new articles for my site, rather instead because I corrected thin content that was already there. It sounds interesting, doesn’t it?
Keep reading until at the conclusion of this article and I’ll reveal my secrets to these results.
What Is Thin Content and Why Is It Dangerous for Your Website?
Web pages that provide no or little value for users are classified as thin-content sites.
Here are a few examples:
404 error page
Pages with no clear information
Sparse content pages
Mixed content
Content of low-value
Let’s take a deeper look at these examples and see how they impact your rankings:
- 404 error page
If someone is on a particular webpage on your website and comes across the 404 response code (“page isn’t there”) It is called the”404 error” page. For a user, Google hates it.
The most important reason behind the error code 404 is the fact that you’d seen the site before but erased it.
The general rule is that Google will crawl your site’s webpages regularly by allocating the site’s crawl time.
Budget sluggish
. You’re not utilizing your time by presenting your page with nothing which doesn’t require to be listed, which is an unnecessary use on time as well as resources to Google.
The Panda algorithm considers it to be thin content and can harm your site’s SEO in a major way.
How To Fix 404s
Via Google Search Console
Log into Google Search Console, and look at the pages with 404 errors in the section called “index coverage”, and you’ll see them in case you’ve got any.
Via Site: Sitename
Go to Google Search and search for Site:yoursitename.com, and you will see all your website pages that Google indexes. Then, you’ll need to go through each page to determine which one responds with the 404 error.
It may be difficult to locate 404 errors if your site has a huge amount of web pages. In these cases you could seek advantage of tools such as
ScreamingFrog
.
There are three methods to correct 404 errors:
You might want to consider adding new content on the page.
Include 301 redirection on your other content that is relevant or home page. (If you’re using Rankmath plugin you can add the same thing in the section called “redirections.”)
You can feed your 404 URLs on the
Removals tool
within Google Search Console. Google Search Console.
There are many of methods to locate and correct 404-related pages and keep a good ranking on Google for the site. - Pages That Lack Concise Information
It is crucial to create clear and concise content that is in line with its purpose. It’s not just a matter of writing in a way that is more or less however, it is essential to write in a way that matches the intent.
making sure your content is tailored to the needs of your audience
.
For instance, my
“Starting a Blog in India”
The guide ranks the top 10 of 20+ competitive keywords . It also generates decent affiliate earnings. However, it wasn’t always as that. However hard my efforts were in formulating it, I was unable to make it through the first page until I realized my error. In the previous article, I had written about working from home jobs at the end of the piece, which implies that I was urging those who might be interested to search for alternative blogging opportunities and to let them go.
And Google The boss was aware of this as well.
While you don’t necessarily have to write a 5,000 word article, make sure that the user does not leave your site with unanswered questions , and then go back to Google for more details or leave earlier because the content is a filler.
Here’s how to optimize your content to get more visibility:
Find the posts or pages which are generating the least amount of traffic, or not at all, using Google Analytics. You will then be required to optimize them using higher quality content.
82% of all marketers
Believe that creating content is the most effective way to improve their search engine optimization.
But, as per
Orbit Media
The proportion of bloggers who regularly update their content that is old and drives more traffic increases each year. They’ve noticed the value of the process of updating their older posts and you should too. It
enhances the freshness and quality of your blog. It also generates more organic traffic when you include relevant keywords.
Here’s what you must be aware of:
Examine if any external or internal links aren’t working , and correct the problem.
Optimize images using caption text as well as alt.
Examine any data that needs to be adjusted.
See if you can add new examples.
Are the visuals still relevant?
Is there room to target new keywords through H1, H2 and H3 titles?
Are you looking for further information? Consider adding an FAQ section.
Update your title with power words that entice prospects.
Each and every page on your site should be read and appreciated. Make sure you provide the greatest value to humans and SEOs. - Sparse Pages
While category pages aid visitors to navigate and comprehend the website more easily, they can also cause negative side consequences. For instance the search engine could take a page for a category as having with a thin content. It could extract an excerpt of the articles it’s carrying, which leads to a situation of duplicate content.
Therefore, to address the problem:
Include relevant SEO titles URL, description and title the same way you apply to general web pages , to better reflect and rank for keywords.
Increase the amount of articles per category page, or create an infinite number of pages, so you don’t have deadweight pages on your sitemap.
Additionally, pages such as contact disclaimer, privacy policy, contact author and so on. These pages will not have much information to search engines, and you could consider deindexing these pages. - Mixed Content
Mixed content includes each of HTTP (non-secure) and HTTPS (secure) resources on a website page.
For instance, if an application is loaded through an encrypted connection, however when embedded resources such as images styles, videos, stylesheets or scripts are loaded from the wrong source browsers will display the message: “unsecured error.” This can affect your site’s overall SEO as well as the UX. (UX).
According to
Google
Mixed content reduces your security as well as UX of your site and makes it vulnerable to attacks. Furthermore, websites that have mixed content are less popular than those with secured content.
Here’s how to locate and fix mixed content
Do the SEMrush website audit in order to see the website that has problems related to mixed content. Fix these issues.
Here’s how you can accomplish this: Audit of the site HTTPS Implementation of HTTPS
In most cases, you can solve this problem by working by contacting your host provider, who will support your site to an HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) standard.
If your webpages are viewed on the two platforms (HTTP or HTTPS) This could be considered duplicate content. You should configure your SSL certificate in a way that redirects websites to HTTPS solely to avoid this problem.
Don’t overlook the fact that HTTPS is a proven Google indexing factor which means it’s a serious matter. - Low-Value Content
Your site could contain harmful content that is in various forms. Here are some examples – and the best way to correct them:
Scraped or Automatically Generated Content
Scraping content may be ineffective from a SEO perspective and also from a reader’s viewpoint. In the near future, copy can negatively impact your overall performance of your site.
Do not copy word-for-word. Even the smallest tweaks like changing the words using synonyms, or running the copy using paraphrasing tools can result in duplicate content. And Google does not like duplicate content.
According to Google
Scraping content even from sources of high-quality does much more damage than benefit.
Although a lot of niche subjects are covered but you can still bring newness to the subject. make connections and make it interesting in your method.
Keyword-Stuffed Pages
Keyword stuffing used to be a successful strategy once, but is an unwise strategy today.
The manipulation of your search engine rankings by including keywords too many times in your content could ruin your chance to be ranked. Even worse, you could be hit with the repercussions of a Google penalty.
Creating
insightful, rich content
using relevant and context-based keywords makes more search engines comprehend your site and reward it with proper keywords.
Keyword C
annibalization
You shouldn’t be focusing on the same keyword across different web pages on your site.
If you do you will have to fight with yourself, using up money on crawls and decreasing authority on your page, causing confusion to people who read your site and search engines.
Instead, you can combine pages that have similar content and key words to create an extensive and reliable guide.
Poor Writing
Google won’t rank your content if your writing contains grammar mistakes. Additionally, it damages your credibility among visitors.
Simple writing is simple to read and provides the reader with value. If you try to lure readers with a shallow message you’re constructing the foundation for
the highest bounce rate
it is possible to have your website go viral as well as allowing the use of the use of shallow content to lower the authority of your website.
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of being straightforward. be clear and straightforward.
Remove the fluff
Writing. Make use of tools such as Grammarly, or outsource proofreading to provide relevant, easy-to-read and useful writing.
Affiliate Pages and Ads
Sites that only publish content based on affiliate products will likely be criticized for being sluggish. They don’t have a lot of new content and mostly contain affiliate links or offers to advertise the product.
Same goes for advertisements. If your website is filled with more advertisements than quality information then you’re
Risking your website’s rankings with little risk.
Make sure that interstitial efforts are not the primary focus. The aim is to give readers an enjoyable reading experience.
Remove Thin Content if You Can’t Fix It
In the year 2019, I had to remove 800+ posts from my blog. And since then, I’ve seen significant improvements in terms of revenue and traffic. What exactly did I clean up?
Content that is off-topic and attachments
Content that wasn’t geared towards the audience and did not have a big impact
Posts were created exclusively for link building purposes and, in return in exchange for a fee
Then, I needed to address the 404s by using an Google Search Console method as described above. It’s not surprising that most of my SEO success stemmed with improving the quality of content.
Google penalizes your website for any kind of a thin content, and it holds your site back from expanding SEO-wise.
Therefore, take your time and look over your site using these suggestions I set out. Regularly conduct site audits to make your site’s health and boost the chances of achieving a high rank on Google.
