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Thin Content.
Thin content means pages with little independent value: hardly any content, copied or automatically generated text, pages that differ only by a swapped place or product name, or affiliate pages without an assessment of their own. Google devalues such pages and they can weaken how the whole website is perceived.
Thin Content — Explained in Detail
The term does not primarily describe short pages but pages without value of their own. An opening hours page with three lines is not thin if it delivers exactly what people are looking for. A page called 'Web design Bülach', on the other hand, is thin if it is identical to 'Web design Kloten' and 'Web design Opfikon' apart from the place name. Google calls such pages doorway pages and deals with them in its spam policies.
Other typical forms: automatically generated text published in large quantities without review (described by Google since 2024 as 'scaled content abuse'), copied manufacturer descriptions in shops, tag and archive pages without text of their own, affiliate pages that only reproduce other people's product data. Since 2024, Google's systems for assessing helpful content have been part of its core updates and also consider the website as a whole.
An example: a cleaning company has 40 location pages with identical text. After a core update, not only the location section but also the main page loses visibility. The solution is to reduce the location pages to those places for which there is genuine, independent content (jobs carried out, travel, local specifics) and to combine the rest on an overview page.
Finding thin content
Clues come from Google Search Console (many pages marked 'Crawled – currently not indexed'), a crawl with word count and similarity checks, and a look at pages without impressions over several months. On our own website, an automated duplicate check before every release prevents pages from being created that differ only by proper names.
A helpful question is whether a page would have a reason to exist even without search engines. Would you send it directly to a client? If not, it is a candidate for a content audit.
Expand, merge or remove
There are three options for every thin page: expand it if there is genuine demand and independent material; merge it with a stronger page and redirect it with a 301 redirect if the topic is already covered; remove it or set it to noindex if the page has no search value. More pages do not automatically mean more visibility.
For location and industry pages we apply a strict standard, as described under Local SEO Agency: separate pages only where independent content and evidenced demand come together. Cleaning up existing websites is part of the SEO analysis.
Related Page
SEO AnalysisFrequently Asked Questions About Thin Content
Pages with little independent value for visitors, such as copied, automatically generated or near-identical text, location pages with a swapped name, or affiliate pages without an assessment of their own. It is about missing added value, not a particular word count.
There is no minimum. A page needs as much text as it takes to answer the underlying question fully. A short, precise page can rank better than a long text without substance.
It can. Google also assesses quality at site level. A large share of thin pages can weaken the perception of the entire domain, especially after core updates. That is why it pays to merge or remove thin pages.
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