Thin Content: What kind of content should you avoid?

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Thin Content: What kind of content should you avoid?

10/11/2021

Profile picture for user Maria Jose Guerrero

Maria Jose Guerrero

Thin Content is low-quality content with no value that undermines the credibility and prestige of an e-commerce business and can lead to losing users. This is not short content, as length is not the only value indicator of quality. However, it is content that is poor or uninteresting for potential customers. Among the most characteristic features of Thin Content are excessive use of keywords, the presence of grammatical errors or outdated content. These errors can appear in both the e-commerce product catalogue and the blog. To avoid this, do a thorough analysis of your website and apply the changes suggested below. If you have queries, you can analyse your competition's e-commerce site to compare descriptions, categories and quality of content.

Consequences of using Thin Content on your e-commerce site 

Abuse of Thin Content on e-commerce pages and content can damage web positioning and sales volume. On the one hand, the Google algorithm penalises this practice, so deliberate keyword abuse can produce the opposite to the intended effect. 

On the other hand, the online market is highly competitive, and the volume of content currently being published is massive. Therefore, many users know whether the information provided by a website is of high quality or not. If potential customers do not find what they are looking for on your website because of a lack of value, or because it does not meet their expectations, they will log off.  In addition to the risk of losing users, they may write a negative review about the e-commerce business, which impacts on sales volume and, in the medium and long term, on the brand image of the online store.

Tips for correcting your online store's Thin Content

Tips for correcting your online store's Thin Content 

Increase the content of your pages and posts 

Review the content already published on your e-commerce site and revise and develop the texts that do not bring value or are not of interest to users. Plan the structure of your pages and start adding information in a way that is organised and makes sense. You can use SEO copywriting to help boost your good positioning and keep track of the number of keywords, subtitles, lists and any other tools that make reading easier. This is a feature that Google rewards. 

Length is not one of the most valued aspects, and there is no fixed minimum. However, about 300 words on pages with different product categories and 150 words on the tabs of each item or service, including applicable keywords, are recommended. Blog posts should be an average of 500 words per topic. You can also conduct a performance study of published topics and identify the most current trends among consumers, to offer more engaging content in the future. 

Whilst revising the e-commerce texts, try to avoid: 

  • Automated Content: Although it can be a valuable tool in some cases, it is still in the optimisation phase. It can generate unrelated texts, spelling or grammatical agreement mistakes, or bad adaptations in translated content. Google and users will notice these errors. 
  • Duplicate Content: Content duplication is one of the practices most punished by Google, whether it is internal duplicate content, which appears on two pages of your e-commerce site, or whether it is plagiarism from other websites or content creators. You should be very aware of this when revising your online site. The penalties for the search engine include filtering the content so that it does not appear in the search results or subtracting points from the pages to worsen positioning. 

Remove content that does not add value to users 

If you feel that you can't improve content after analysing it, don't be afraid to delete it. Deleting information does not result in penalties from search engines. If this is a strategic page that you do not want to delete, you can redirect to new, well-organised content that fulfils users’ search intent. 

Combining a well-looked after e-commerce site with quality, well-structured information and an appropriate pricing strategy will bring increased traffic and gradually help build a trusting relationship with consumers.

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