How to Identify and Fix It

What Is Thin Content?

Thin content refers to website pages that offer visitors little or no added value.

In other words, they don’t answer search intent or help users complete a task.

Thin content pages can have a low word count. But they can also be long posts that are:

• Poorly written (lots of errors and no real message)
• Copied from other sites
• Full of ads or spammy links
• Auto-generated using a program or code

Thin content became a talking point in SEO after the 2011 Google Panda algorithm update.

That was when Google pursued low-quality content publicly. It aimed to lower the rank of sites with poor content quality and improve user experience (UX) as a result.

Although the Panda update is over 12 years old, Google still uses its core values in its newer E-E-A-T quality metric.

That’s why getting rid of thin content is more crucial than ever.

How Thin Content Hurts Your SEO

Thin website content provides a poor UX, which results in high bounce rates and unsatisfied users.

It lacks valuable information, frustrating users looking for answers or solutions. It’s often poorly written and structured.

So, it’s difficult for users to scan, which can lead to confusion and abandonment.

It can also result in keyword cannibalization (e.g., multiple articles on your site are optimized for the same keyword or phrase) and poor backend organization.

Also, when Google finds your content thin, it can demote or remove it from search rankings.

In extreme cases, it can de-index your...