Find out what Thin Content is and why it harms an SEO strategy

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Google seeks to position results that match users' search intent , so if your main mission is to be on the first page of the search engine , you must convince it that you really answer people's questions and provide them with valuable content.

And you can only achieve this if you are willing to write mint database correctly and extensively about the topic you are looking to rank for, because if you have thin content, it is very possible that your content will not be displayed as the best result in the search engine .

But what is this content about and how does it negatively affect your search rankings? Find out these answers and more by reading this article until the end!

What is thin content?
Thin content is the content of a website that does not provide any value to the reader . In short, it is one of the actions that is the opposite of SEO strategies.

Google measures the qualities of the text according to the published content, links and structure, and if it finds something wrong and unethical, it flags it as "thin content".

However, it is important to mention that short content is not necessarily thin content . That is, if your content is 200 words long and, according to Google's algorithms, meets the reader's expectations, it will be valid, but its probability of ranking will be much lower than that of a longer content.

Types of thin content
There are several patterns that allow us to identify and classify "thin content." These are:

Duplicate or stolen content
If a content does not provide different or relevant information to that provided by your competitors, it will not be recognized by Google and, in most cases, you will be penalized by search engines .

But this is not the only duplicate content that Google considers, it also includes:

Those that are copied and rewritten with slight adaptations.
Those translated from another language and included directly on your website, without a link to the original post to reference it.
Content lacking depth or usefulness
It's one thing to talk about a product review in a 200-word piece of content, and another thing to write an article whose keyword is " content marketing " and whose length is the same.

In the second case, Google will perceive that the content is scarce and that it barely scratches the surface of the important topic.


Content flooded with ads
These are articles that only show advertisements and calls to action, and do not contain useful information.

In this case, the ads cover the content, appear above the fold, and/or require user actions to dismiss them.

To avoid being penalized by Google, make sure these are secondary to the content.

Low quality affiliate content
These are contents that only offer affiliate links and do not provide relevant or useful information for the end user.

And, to avoid falling into this thin content, we must ensure that the content has a purpose greater than the affiliate offer and focuses on providing affiliation opportunities that match the sector of the website.

Blank or half-blank pages
Not only are these pages with little content, but they also do not contribute anything, they have poorly developed filters and/or tags generated with little care and without following SEO strategies.

How does thin content affect your site's SEO?
By generating thin content we are exposed to being penalized by Google, preventing us from achieving a good position in the SERPs , or even having our blog removed from the website.

In addition to this, there are also other negative consequences that come with poor or "flat" content, such as:

Search engine positioning falls
Google only ranks those sites that match the search intent of users , and that, among other aspects, also:

They have excellent technical performance, that is, they load quickly , they are secure, they are mobile friendly;
They have dominance in long-tail keywords ;
They use meta-tags;
They write quality content , something that you obviously won't be able to achieve if your website has thin content.
The dropout rate is increasing
This means that it significantly increases the number of users who enter and leave your website without interacting with it optimally, that is, without reading other content or taking favorable steps for the sales funnel .

Little interaction
Users only engage if they find something that catches their attention and answers specific needs they have. “Thin content” will create a completely different situation than this, making it harder – or rather, impossible – to retain and convince users to engage, leave their contact details, buy, etc.

Lack of backlinks
Backlinks are a fundamental SEO strategy and consist of another website directing their content to yours, which only happens if they consider your content to be of quality .

However, by having thin content, this will not happen because they will not find relevant information.

On the other hand, its importance lies in the fact that:

Google uses them as a ranking criterion;
directly impact the acquisition of referral traffic;
strengthens Brand Awareness ;
build relationships.

You won't be considered an expert in your niche
By finding thin content, Internet users will not take your website or company as an authority on the subject and in the niche in which you operate, which will lead you, in short, to losing conversions , sales , among others.

Little traffic and minimal interest
Have you ever searched for something on the Internet and noticed the domain of a website where you never found anything interesting and decided not to open it but instead go to another one? If this has happened to you, it is probably because you have not found quality content before.

So to prevent this from happening to other Internet users with your website and blog, it is best to stay away from thin content as much as possible.

Furthermore, for Google today, the user is the protagonist , so if they are not interested in your content, this will lead to a loss of authority.

Learn to avoid thin content
Nothing escapes Google , that's why it's important to avoid this type of content, and to do so there are different effective techniques that will help you improve your domain and capture more users. Discover them!

Create unique content
The first thing to avoid thin content is to create valuable, precise, unique and original content, since it is one thing to take your competition as a reference and quite another to plagiarize their articles.

Also, complement your content with data and information from surveys, studies, etc. This is a key aspect for Google and will be appreciated by readers, thus gaining exclusivity and recognition.

Additionally, by creating unique content, you will strengthen engagement and increase loyalty to your blog and company, because you will be seen as an authoritative exponent in your niche.

Take care of the design of your texts
Another differentiating factor is the text of your content, its structure, attractiveness, size and font type; aspects that, although they may seem irrelevant, provide originality, attract the reader and generate interest in the content.

Create quality content
It is not just about unique content, it must also provide relevant information that teaches, educates and responds to the reader's search intent.

Thus, to avoid thin content, it is necessary to create quality content that is well structured and includes SEO strategies.

On the other hand, by not having quality content you run the risk of becoming unattractive to Google and users.

It is important to mention that creating this content is not impossible, but to do so it does require, in short, dedication, research, knowledge of your niche and SEO, and the creation of your buyer persona .

Check that your content is not duplicated
Another way to avoid thin content is to check that it is not duplicated and to do so we recommend that you use one of the following tools:

Google Search Console : It's free and helps you keep track of the status of your content and optimize its positioning; for example, if you have duplicate content, it will notify you. It also provides you with visual content strategies that attract people's attention.
SEMrush – Helps improve your SEO by analyzing the best keywords for your niche and detecting duplicate content.
Siteliner – Helps you check for stolen content, website ranking and positioning.
Quetext : its free version allows you to analyze up to 500 words of content and verify if there is an internal content on your blog or an external content from your competition that is the same as this one.
Plagium : allows you to check the authenticity of texts with a maximum of 5,000 characters.
Using any of these tools helps us get rid of thin content, as they allow us to compare the information in our articles before publishing them.

Conclusion: avoid thin content
As you may have noticed, thin content does not generate any benefit , but on the contrary, it will only bring you unnecessary problems.

This is because Google punishes those who practice this type of content, either by taking the article off the air or — as we mentioned above — the blog in general. In addition, it is possible that even the real owner of the text files a complaint and Google may process this with another type of sanction with legal repercussions.

So if you are looking for authority, visibility, positioning in search engines and reader loyalty, you should definitely avoid this content and opt for SEO. Therefore, to fully understand what it is about, we invite you to download our SEO 2.0 Guide .