Top 7 Types of Thin Content Killing Your Engagement

What actually is “thin content”?

Google’s main goal is to show results that match what people are looking for. Any page that doesn’t meet this need is considered thin content. It could be shallow, leave out important information, or not answer the question it said it would.

But the number of words is not the only thing that makes content thin. Very short pages often have trouble ranking, but length isn’t the only thing that matters. Tax law is a complicated subject that needs a lot of explanation, but an e-commerce product page might only need clear specs. The problem happens when the content given doesn’t match the level of detail needed for the user’s question.

Here are the seven most common types of thin content you need to watch out for.

1. Content that lacks depth

The “surface-level” page is one of the most common offenders. You can’t give a full answer in 200 words if you’re writing about something complicated, like medical advice or financial rules. Readers will have to leave your site to find a better explanation somewhere else, which is bad for Google.

How to fix it:
Check out the top pages for your target keyword before you start writing. A 400-word summary won’t be able to compete with a 1,500-word article on the same topic. make sure you have the right amount of depth to cover the topic fully.

2. Poorly written or “spun” text

Good writing is a big sign of trust. If your content has a lot of grammatical mistakes, unclear phrasing, or awkward keyword stuffing, it looks unprofessional and untrustworthy. If someone goes to a product page that says, “Shoes good quality buy now cheap price,” they will probably leave right away.

How to fix it:
If you don’t do a good job of following through, even great ideas won’t work. Use tools like Grammarly or Hemingway to find mistakes, but always put human readability ahead of keyword density that works for robots. Writing that is clear and polished shows authority.

3. Low-quality affiliate pages

Google has been very strict with affiliate content that is only there to make sales and doesn’t offer any value. It’s easy to tell when someone who has never used the products writes a “Top 10 Gadgets” list. These pages usually just repeat generic descriptions from manufacturers and have a lot of “Buy Now” buttons.

How to fix it:
Focus on content that is real and based on experience. Add real pros and cons, your own thoughts, or comparisons based on data. To get a good ranking, you need to give a point of view that the manufacturer’s sales page doesn’t.

4. Duplicate content blocks

Duplicate content is when blocks of text on different pages are the same or very similar. Search engines get confused because they don’t know which version to rank, which usually means that neither page does well.

A service business that has pages for “Car Insurance in Florida” and “Car Insurance in South Carolina” is a common example. The text on these pages is the same except for the name of the state.

How to fix it:
Make each page different. Use canonical tags to let Google know which page is the “master” version if you need to have similar pages. Even better, combine similar pages into one complete guide or rewrite them to include specific, one-of-a-kind information for each version.

5. Doorway pages

Doorway pages, which are also called gateway pages, are made to rank for certain keywords but don’t offer much value. Instead, they often send users to a different page.

Picture an insurance company making dozens of almost identical pages for each city neighborhood, like “Best Insurance in Charleston” and “Best Insurance in Mount Pleasant.” Google sees this as manipulation if the content doesn’t give value to a specific location, like local rates or branch information.

How to fix it:
Make sure that every landing page has a good reason for being there. If you make a page for a certain city, make sure it has stats and information that are unique to that city and that are useful to the people who live there.

6. Pages with spammy or irrelevant links

Google can tell a lot about the area around your site from the links you send out. When you link to websites that aren’t relevant, are of low quality, or are spammy, like random gambling sites or stores that don’t have anything to do with your business, your credibility goes down.

How to fix it:
Check your outbound links. Only link to sources that really help the reader, like news articles, credible research, or useful references. Take out a link if it seems forced or like it’s just there to promote something.

7. Pages overwhelmed by ads

You have a problem if a user has to scroll past three ads and a pop-up to read the first sentence on your page. Too many ads can be distracting, make people stay on the page for less time, and are often flagged as thin content because the “meat” of the page is hidden.

How to fix it:
Put the user experience first. Keep ads to a minimum, especially those that are “above the fold,” or the top part of the screen that you can see without scrolling. A layout that is balanced keeps people reading and helps your SEO.

Prioritize value over volume

Thin content hurts your website’s performance, which can hurt everything from search rankings to user loyalty. These low-quality pages, like a shallow blog post, a doorway page, or an article full of ads, lower the overall value of your domain.

The answer is easy: put the user first. The best way to protect yourself from algorithm updates is to make content that fully answers questions and gives new information. Today, check your site for dead weight, get rid of it, or make it better, and see your engagement numbers go up.