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TRENDING UPWARDS: Thin content - why it's never a good idea

Ever been on a website, clicked on a page and only found a handful of words on the page before aggressively closing the tab in a fit of rage at just how useless it was? That's thin content and trust me, it's never a good idea.

Danielle, Anthony and Adrian have had a lot of requests and queries from clients recently about this tactic. They've been telling our clients the same; it's something they should steer clear of.

Wondering what thin content is? Sweating profusely while reading this because you have thin content plastered all over your website? Make sure to hit the play button below to hear their insights and what you should focus on instead.

 

What's thin content?

To kick off episode four of Trending Upwards, Adrian runs through what thin content actually is. 

Thin content is on-page content that has little or no value to the visitor. This includes:

  • Content that's automatically generated
  • Unhelpful affiliate content
  • Content stolen from other websites
  • Content on doorway pages (pages that have virtually the same content apart from the odd keyword or sentence)

This tactic is designed to try and manipulate Google to try and rank for specific keywords and locations.

Why is it a bad idea?

The guys say thin content has limited value for your website as it doesn't answer important questions visitors might need answering. Ultimately this gives a poor user experience.

Google also often ignores this type of content or (in some very extreme cases) penalises a website using thin content throughout their website.

So, what's the point in wasting such little effort in a tactic like thin content when Google won't index or share with searchers anyway.

 

Minimal effort. Minimal rewards. 

What to do instead

The number one focus for you needs to be creating valuable content and answer relevant questions. Boilerplate doesn't work anymore, you need to answer the questions searches are actually asking.

Don't produce content for the sake of producing content. It needs to be relevant. Content also costs money, so why would you intentionally writer bad content which doesn't get you rewards when you can spend that money to write good content which, in time, pays itself back?

Plus, content doesn't immediately rank anyway. So, invest and take the time to provide useful content, improve it over time and get ahead of your competition. This should be your top priority.

This is just a quick explanation of what Danielle, Anthony and Adrian discuss in this insightful episode. If thin content has you worried or you're interested to find out more tips on what to do instead, make sure to watch or listen to the episode.


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