{"id":30495,"date":"2014-02-24T09:15:52","date_gmt":"2014-02-24T17:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/?p=30495"},"modified":"2020-08-05T12:22:40","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T19:22:40","slug":"website-can-thin-content-common-scenarios-solutions-boilerplate-location-pages-filtered-ecommerce-pages-duplicate-manufacturer-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/website-can-thin-content-common-scenarios-solutions-boilerplate-location-pages-filtered-ecommerce-pages-duplicate-manufacturer-content\/","title":{"rendered":"What a Website Can Do about “Thin Content” \u2014 4 Common Scenarios and Solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"
For many e-commerce sites, sites with hundreds of mostly duplicated pages, and others, fixing thin content may seem like an impossible goal. But thin content is the opposite of the unique, relevant quality content<\/a> that search engines want to show on results pages. Thin content can hurt a website\u2019s SEO<\/a> and revenue.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the worst that can happen?<\/em><\/b> Websites can incur manual penalties<\/a> from Google for having \u201cThin content with little or no added value\u201d<\/em> (see this Google Help video<\/a> for Matt Cutts\u2019s explanation and our tutorial on avoiding Google penalties<\/a> for more detail). Other times, sites may experience sudden drops in organic search traffic as evidence of an algorithmic penalty (usually Panda-related). Either way, penalty actions reduce website traffic and impact the bottom line.<\/p>\n What can a website do to fix thin content?<\/em><\/b> Last week\u2019s ISOOSI Tuesday Chat, a Google+ Hangout-on-Air hosted by ISOOSI Research Engine<\/a>, dealt with this issue. In\u00a0Making Your Thin Content Phat!<\/a>,<\/b>\u00a0host and ISOOSI President Carlos Fernandes<\/a> talked with four Internet marketing experts: Ammon Johns<\/a>, David Harry<\/a>, Terry Van Horne<\/a> and Bill Slawski<\/a>. What follows are the questions, problems and solutions this panel of experts discussed during the Hangout.<\/p>\n In this article you\u2019ll find solutions for four common causes of thin content, which you can jump to with the links below:<\/p>\n Thin content isn\u2019t about the amount<\/i> of content, but the quality<\/i>. Here are some general tips for content creation that will keep you clear of Google\u2019s thin content traps.<\/p>\n \u201cMake Google stupid for not showing your result in the top three or four spots.\u201d<\/i> \u2013 Carlos Fernandes<\/p>\n For even more useful tips, see these SEO Tips for Writing<\/a> within our SEO Guide<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Websites wanting to do business in many different cities often set up \u201clocation pages\u201d to help them rank for location-based searches. When these are created using a boilerplate template with just a \u201cfill-in-the-blank\u201d approach to change the place names, the same content gets duplicated across hundreds or thousands of pages. And that\u2019s the kind of \u201cthin content\u201d Google\u2019s Panda algorithm seeks to eliminate.<\/p>\n There\u2019s contention even among experts over whether there\u2019s a reason to ever have pages for different locations anymore.<\/p>\n A case could be made that \u201cAnybody who tries to do location pages now is just an idiot \u2026 They got Google Local for a reason.<\/i>\u201d \u2013 Terry Van Horne<\/p>\n Adversely, it could be argued that location-specific content is a value add. Carlos reported that having region-specific pages on his website had brought him a $352 million inquiry just that week.<\/p>\n \u201cLocation pages ARE still needed. There are a lot of times when a national provider is going to be excluded from local results because \u2026 what Google cares about is [giving] the best results <\/i>matching their algorithm and that the user is satisfied [not necessarily giving the truly best results].\u201d<\/i> \u2013 Ammon Johns<\/p>\n Ultimately, location pages may have value to online marketers depending on user intent<\/b>. Why would it be important enough for users to specify a location in their search? Reasons could be:<\/p>\n HOW TO FIX LOCATION PAGES<\/b><\/p>\n If you understand the user\u2019s intent, then you can\u00a0add some unique content to each location page that meets the user\u2019s specific needs. <\/i>Try these recommendations for your geo-targeted content:<\/p>\n \u201cThe next best thing to having a link from a big, powerful, authority site is putting a link to a big, powerful, authority site.\u201d <\/i>\u2013 Ammon Johns<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n On an ecommerce site, users can view pages with filtered results, such as by brand, by size, by product type, or by other attributes. These \u201cfiltered results\u201d pages have a unique URL that can be indexed by the search engines. The problem is, since none of the content is unique on those pages, they create a nightmare of duplicate, thin content. In a worst case scenario, a site with only 3,000 products may have 40,000 pages indexed, which makes no sense. Google can and will penalize ecommerce sites for this situation. But should you struggle with making those pages unique? Most sites do not need to rank for product attributes, and having so many filtered pages dilutes the site’s internal link equity anyway.<\/p>\n HOW TO FIX FILTERED RESULTS PAGES<\/b><\/p>\n Again, the goal is to put some unique content on every page that will be indexed for search. Barring that, the other choice is to prevent non-unique pages from being indexed at all.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n E-commerce product pages commonly have two problems that cause thin content: duplicated manufacturer descriptions and repeated text for terms of service and shipping information.<\/p>\n Many e-commerce sites take boilerplate, manufacturer-provided text and paste it into their product pages. Manufacturer product descriptions can be found all over the web, so these duplicate product pages can trigger search engine penalties. It\u2019s also problematic when lengthy blocks of text for terms of service and shipping information are repeated across all product pages.<\/p>\n HOW TO FIX PRODUCT PAGES<\/b><\/p>\n For this problem, there is only one solution: make original content for each product page. This can be a monumental task for sites with thousands of products, but necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like a one-legged man training for the 100-yard dash.\u201d<\/i> \u2013 Terry Van Horne<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n There\u2019s a type of content that has become commonplace on the web today: \u201cme too\u201d blog posts, which may be 2000-word articles about things people have already read elsewhere. These posts are not true curations because they have no added value and nothing original. While you might think \u201cthin content\u201d means not enough words, that\u2019s incorrect; long posts can be considered \u201cthin,\u201d too.<\/p>\n HOW TO FIX \u201cME TOO\u201d POSTS<\/b><\/p>\n In the end, correcting and avoiding thin content comes down to one question:<\/p>\n \u201cIf you can\u2019t do better than the results that are already there, why bother?\u201d<\/i> \u2013 Ammon Johns<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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How to Avoid Thin Content<\/h2>\n
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Thin Content Scenario #1 \u2013 Boilerplate Location Pages<\/h2>\n
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Thin Content Scenario #2: Filtered E-commerce Pages<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Thin Content Scenario #3: Product Pages<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Thin Content Scenario #4: \u201cMe too\u201d SEO Posts<\/b><\/h2>\n
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