Should you remove those thin content from your blog?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by Minterest, Jul 27, 2012.

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  1. #1
    Hello,

    Should we remove thin content or low quality content or pages that receives almost no traffic from our blog? Will there be any +ve effect if we do that?

    - Minterest
     
    Minterest, Jul 27, 2012 IP
  2. seo.evo

    seo.evo Member

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    #2
    Well, I personally think it doesn't really matter. Just make sure you are writing the content for your audience, if you think it's just wasting space, then maybe you should go ahead and delete them.
     
    seo.evo, Jul 28, 2012 IP
  3. Bearmar

    Bearmar Greenhorn

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    #3
    It depends on what you are calling thin or low quality content. If it is legitimately low quality content according to google's definition, then yes, make it go away. If it is just not getting as much traffic as your other pages, maybe it doesn't really belong on the site for value and relativity or the right people have not seen it, but that won't hurt the SEO.
     
    Bearmar, Jul 28, 2012 IP
  4. mizugaki_showa

    mizugaki_showa Peon

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    #4
    just don't remove them.. just add something...
     
    mizugaki_showa, Jul 28, 2012 IP
  5. Pepdeal

    Pepdeal Peon

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    #5
    add something instead of removing.
     
    Pepdeal, Jul 28, 2012 IP
  6. ryan_uk

    ryan_uk Illustrious Member

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    #6
    So what you need to figure out for the low traffic pages:

    1. What keywords are you targeting.
    2. What the search volumes are (Google keyword tool).
    3. What your rank is for those pages.

    If a page has low search volume, say 20 per month, and you're getting 13 visitors then you're doing OK as long as your page is answering the question. Get someone to read it who doesn't even know what SEO is. Their view on the content will help you fix it.

    As for the thin/low quality content. It depends on your definition of thin as popular news sites and blogs have articles that are sometimes only 2-3 sentences long. This is also fine (as confirmed by Matt Cutts in this interview). The point in content isn't to be massively long (the "500 words" people often mention is a load of BS and a myth), but to be useful and informative. It's not useful if it drones on for 500 words, when the information can be provided in say 75 words. People will leave the long-winded version. So again, get some totally non-SEO person to read it and give you feedback. Then you'll know how to improve it.

    Now if the content is really crappy, for example copy and pasted from another site, or the same sentences repeated over a lot of pages, or content that just doesn't make sense, then you will have a problem. Getting rid of it can potentially help you (part of Panda is to look for such content and take action on the pages or even the domain as a whole).

    Just don't go delete crazy until you've properly evaluated it all though.
     
    ryan_uk, Jul 28, 2012 IP