Back in the day, search engine optimization was very different from what it is today. While the process still produces good results, it was much more efficient a decade ago.
In the late 2000s and early 2010s, a marketing agency could make big bucks for its clients by simply using duplicate content and other nasty content tricks. Basically, you didn’t even have to create articles and instead, you could simply repurpose what other sites were creating. In time, this phenomenon became known as SEO thin content.
The problem was so widespread that even the most authoritative sites and news portals were affected. The biggest issue is that quality creators were destimulated to write pieces given that anyone could overtake them in search engine rankings by using a few tools.
Eventually, Google had to address thin content by introducing a thin content penalty. In this article, we explain the history of thin content, how it affects your website, and whether you should be worried.
History of search engine content
More than a decade ago, Google was such a mess. Hyper-optimization was running rampant, and you could find all sorts of low-quality content on top of search engine results pages. Basically, you could propel a useless piece to the top of search engines by using a few simple tricks, such as increasing word count or spamming the same keyword over and over again.
Marketing teams were creating content by copy-pasting entire articles from other websites or by implementing various prohibited link-building and page-creation techniques. In some cases, these new thin content pages would become even more powerful than the original piece.
Besides stealing high-quality content from other sources and destroying other people’s hard work, some scrupulous marketers went a step further by adding black-hat techniques to the mix. As a result, the search results were littered with duplicate content, nonsensical articles, and other thin pages. You could easily destroy valuable content from authoritative sources, pushing forward low-quality websites and awful, spammy pieces.
All of this changed with the new Panda algorithm, which was rolled out by the company in February 2011. Google’s algorithm had a simple task to fix thin content and penalize all websites that were using unlawful techniques. Over time, the search engine giant introduced other improvements that would further separate the wheat from the chaff.
What is thin content?
Thin content pages, also known as shallow pages, are all pages that provide little or no value for end users. These pieces could be copy-pasted from other sources, rely on keyword stuffing, or barely differ from the original content.
When we talk about the concept, most people think of blog posts. However, the term can refer to just about anything from videos, images, and other multimedia. In fact, we can use it for just about any element present on web pages, from meta descriptions to navigation tools.
It doesn’t take an SEO expert to identify thin content; these web pages are noticeably worse than original, high-quality content that occupies the top spots of Google search. Here are the most common types of thin content that we recognize:
With these simple tricks, you can easily avoid identical pages and thin content.
Delete pages
The simplest way to go about things is to eliminate thin content outright. That way, you don’t have to worry about potential consequences and whether the piece will still be similar after a rewrite.
Deleting the pages is vital for sites that knowingly use shady techniques or were hit by a thin content penalty. In these cases, Google won’t give you a big leash, so you’ll have to make deep cuts to your blog content. Most notably, content deletion is essential for duplicate pages as these are more heavily scrutinized than other shallow pages.
Rewrite articles
If the thin content was caused by a mistake and you wanted to create two distinct pieces on two different topics, you can go with article rewrites. This is much easier than making a post from scratch, as you already have the relevant information on the page. Of course, you can also add new sections to further enrich the piece.
You can also do a good job by simply removing or paraphrasing the main keywords. Sometimes, thin content occurs due to keyword spamming, so you can do a fantastic job by simply focusing on these terms.
Add extra information
Low word count is another problem you need to tackle. If your piece is unique and doesn’t need a rewrite but is still classified as thin content, you can add a few paragraphs to enrich the information. Adding another 500 words will be enough in almost every case.
Combine pages
If you have lots of similar pages on your blog, and most of them have thin content, you can add more value to them through consolidation. Put several articles onto one page, thus significantly improving user experience. As long as the pieces were unique, this should fix thin content issue.
Conclusion
For the most part, thin content is a thing of the past. Although previously an integral part of SEO methodology, it can put you in a lot of trouble nowadays.
Given that Google has started relying on user engagement metrics to assess the quality of pages, you can no longer game the system as you could in the years prior. Website visitors and their experience should always be in the limelight. So, when creating new articles, make sure they’re readable and engaging and answer users’ questions.
If you’re struggling with thin content or are simply looking to update your pieces for modern SEO, you should contact MiroMind. Our team of writers knows how to implement the best practices so that each piece would receive the most value from search engines.