Search Engine Management is, of course, all about presenting the most resourceful, authoritative information in response to searches online. When your website’s content represents the most resourceful and authoritative content available for a given search or industry, it gets the grand prize of Page 1 search engine ranking. With that comes the 70% or more of the web traffic that makes it to Page 1.
Some websites recognize that and pump up the volume of original content they publish online. But others miss the mark and post page after page of what is commonly called “thin” content. Thin website content is what you might guess it is: simply not enough information to adequately address the subject being covered.
Why is Thin Content Bad for Your Website’s SEO?
Thin content is simply a dissatisfying amount of information covering a given subject. A couple of paragraphs on a website that is supposed to be presented as a resource in a given field is, for obvious, reasons at best inadequate. And the objective is also clear, pump out as little content as is necessary on a regular basis to provide a new page of web content to appease Google’s algorithms.
Well, thin content doesn’t appease search algorithms, it frustrates them. Thin content, meager paragraphs that inadequately address important questions about a given keyword/subject really don’t serve as great resources for searches online, and audiences show it.
When a reader visits a webpage with thin content, they bounce, for obvious reasons. They leave (1) because there’s not much information on the page and there’s no other reason to stay there; and (2) because the content on the page is ultimately useless. Also, what search algorithms do notice is that traffic often leaves the site entirely without visiting other pages on the website after visiting pages with thin content. This sure sign of inadequacy ultimately hurts your site’s rankings. It says that your site does not serve its purported purpose adequately and should not be ranked highly.
How to Address Thin Content
If your website is guilty of carrying that pesky thin web content, well, there are some things you can do to address it.
- Clean it Up: Go back and review where website content is inadequate and evaluate what added information can complete the content that is there. Often thin content leaves more questions than it answers. Ask yourself what questions are left wanting on the page and address them with new content. If you have content on other pages that answer those questions, simply merge the content and eliminate the extra page. The elimination of extra HTML will help your site’s content-to-HTML ratio, ultimately.
- Get Rid of It: Often content that is thin is unnecessary and addresses issues that aren’t important to your customers/clients. Let’s face it. It’s not easy churning out new content every week and keep hitting home runs. But when that content is really a stretch in terms of interest on the part of your customers, it’s really more of a problem than it is a solution. Take a good, hard look at your content and evaluate whether or not it is supportive of your website’s mission to be a resource for your online community and do what you need to do.
If you would like to know how a comprehensive SEO audit can help ferret out any issues that can contribute to a high bounce rate on your site, call Proctor Digital at 773.664.5819. We’d love to help!