What is thin content according to Google? Does it harm your SEO?

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what-is-thin-content-according-to-GoogleThin content according to Google is little or no original content. Google wants to provide information-rich search results to its users so obviously it doesn’t like it when valueless content appears at the top of the search results. This is why when Google considers your content as “thin content”, it penalizes your website and consequently, this harms your SEO.

What sort of content is thin content according to Google?

Many web owners start generating meaningless content hoping that this would improve their search engine rankings. This can be auto generated content. It can be doorway pages. It can be scrapped content (a web script visit pages and scraps contents of them). It can be duplicate content – same content but different headlines.

The content that is not generated by a human after due thought is basically thin content. Google has advanced algorithms to make out if you are generating thin content to improve your SEO.

It is not entirely true though. Even human-generated content can be thin content. For example, you have been creating webpages and blog posts that are just 200-300 words. This can be termed as thin content. In itself it cannot be harmful for your SEO but what would Google prefer? 200-300 words on a topic by you or 1500 words on the same topic by someone else?

This is what Google has to say about thin content:

Some webmasters attempt to improve their pages’ ranking and attract visitors by creating pages with many words but little or no authentic content. Google will take action against domains that try to rank more highly by just showing scraped or other cookie-cutter pages that don’t add substantial value to users.

Here is a video where Matt Cutts describes thin content

Although thin content was in vogue in the early 2000’s and mid-2000’s, some ill-informed website owners and SEO experts still think that quickly generating lots of content can get them good search engine rankings.

The problem may lie in the fact that by fluke sometimes the websites begin to get good rankings but these rankings don’t last. Sooner or later these people get caught but before they get caught, there is so much noise about their fete that many more people get misguided.

The story has it that Google Panda was released precisely to tackle the problem of thin content.

Difference between thin content and curated content

Content curation is a very good content marketing tactic. You find high quality content on the Internet and then you compile the links on your own blog or website or on your social networking profiles. Read Should you create content or curate content?

Since in content curation you’re basically linking to outside content and you write a couple of paragraphs to briefly describe the content and present your own view, is it also thin content?

Google’s advanced text analyzing algorithms can easily make out whether you are curating content or generating thin content. There are no instances of people being penalized for curating content.

Again, thin content is all about creating lots of useless content in order to generate search engine traffic. Advanced machine analysis can easily make out if you are creating random strings of text with no meaning. If you don’t deliver value and are simply creating blog posts and webpages to use your keywords, Google can make that out. Read 10 tips to write high-quality content extremely fast.

On the other hand, if you are curating high quality content from other websites, Google can make that out too and rank your individual links accordingly.

How to avoid the thin content penalty from Google

Now that you know what is thin content according to Google, how to avoid thin content penalty?

Publish quality content. Publish content that delivers value. Publish content that people would like to share and link to. Read 20 Evergreen Characteristics of Quality Content.

This is precisely the reason why Google takes into account social validation when ranking your webpages and blog posts. If people like your content, Google automatically likes it.

Aside from this, take care of the following steps in order to avoid the thin content penalty from Google:

  1. Use your keywords and search terms but avoid using them needlessly. Read How I select and organize keywords for writing optimized content.
  2. Write content keeping your visitors in mind and not search engine crawlers. Read How to write content for humans but optimize for Google and other search engines.
  3. Try to pack lots of information and lots of research because this will enable you to write long webpages and blog posts, which are preferred by Google.
  4. Make sure there are no spelling and grammar mistakes because low quality content normally has lots of spelling and grammar mistakes.
  5. Create unique content. Read How to help your business stand out with unique content.
  6. Write to impart knowledge, educate people and to provide them help instead of simply writing content to get better search engine rankings.

It is very important that you are careful about the various Google search engine guidelines on creating content. Sometimes, even unintentionally you may end up creating thin content and attract Google penalty consequently.

How to evaluate your SEO content writing

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how-to-evaluate-your-SEO-content-writingSEO these days depends a lot on your content writing. Of course, it has always depended because unless you have content, there can be no SEO, but these days you especially need to continuously evaluate your SEO content writing because badly written content can harm your SEO as much as well-written content can improve it. Read 10 tips on how to write SEO content for your website.

Search Engine Journal has published a nice post on How to evaluate the SEO value of a piece of content and I thought, I would add my own thoughts to it. This post on the importance of evaluating your SEO content writing mentions two ways Google determines the SEO value of your content:

  1. Behavioral analysis: Google analyses how people behave while accessing and consuming your content. How much time they spend on individual blog posts and webpages? How often your content is shared among people and social networking websites?
  2. Quality Raters: Everything isn’t algorithmic at Google it seems. Google also hires human search quality raters who use predetermined guidelines to check whether you actually have quality content or somehow you have gamed the system. Read 30+ important takeaways from Google’s search quality raters guidelines (a Moz blog post).

Why is it important to evaluate your SEO content writing continuously?

As mentioned above, Google uses user behavior as well as human quality raters to ensure the quality of its search results. Let’s delve into the behavioral analysis part deeper for a while. What sort of behavior tells Google that you have got quality content, content worthy of being ranked higher?

  • Your content delivers value
  • Your content is useful
  • People like reading your content or watching it
  • People link to your content because it is so valuable
  • People share your content on social networking websites because they think it will be useful to their friends and family

These are human validations. It makes it easier for Google algorithms to evaluate your content because the job of evaluation is being done by humans themselves. By staying longer on your website, by sharing your content, by linking to it, they are telling Google that the content is valuable and of high quality.

So, in order to evaluate the SEO of your content writing, you continuously have to evaluate its relevance, its quality and its value. It’s not just about sticking to Google’s guidelines, it’s about delivering value through content writing. If you deliver value, you automatically stick to Google’s SEO guidelines, unless you do something really stupid, like 60% of your content being your keywords.

What do you need to consider while evaluating your SEO content writing?

Here are a few things you can keep in mind while evaluating the SEO of your content writing:

  • Research your keywords and search terms that people use to find your website. Do a comprehensive research. Don’t assume what keywords and search terms people would use just because you like those keywords and search terms. Think from their perspective. Prepare a physical list using an Excel sheet.
  • Write high quality content that helps people solve problems. Remember that ultimately your content needs to be useful to people and if it is not useful, no matter how much “optimization” you do, it is not going to work. As you have seen above, human validation is very important for Google and even other search engines like Bing. You cannot make people like your content just by the dint of its existence. You actually have to deliver value.
  • Use the right keywords and search terms while writing your content. Search engine optimization is very important because more than 70-80% people, despite social networking websites, still use search engines to find your content. If they cannot find your content, it is of no use to them. They’re not going to read your content and they are not going to share it and they are not going to link to it if they cannot find it. So, use your keywords, and use them contextually. Don’t stuff them.
  • Go an extra mile to make sure that right people can find your content. Share your link on your social networking profiles. Use different formats like images, videos and slides to make your content available in as many formats and as many media channels as possible. This is where marketing comes. After content writing comes content marketing. Read Content writing is just a tiny part of content marketing, but the most important.
  • Google also evaluates the SEO of your content writing by the length of it. If your blog post or webpage is less 300 words, Google calls it “thin content”: although it is content, it is not of much value. The length matters these days. Write blog posts and articles that are more than 1000 words, whenever possible.
  • Never forget accessibility. Does your website comply with the W3C guidelines? When you make your content accessible it’s SEO value automatically increases. This is because when your content is accessible to humans, it is also accessible to search engine crawlers. Use the right attributes to organize your content. Use headline tags and bullet tags to make your content scannable. Use alt text, title text and captions to make your images accessible. Don’t use lots of JavaScript before your content.

Finally, this is how you evaluate your SEO content writing

  • Is your SEO content attracting traffic for the right keywords?
  • Is your content attracting enough traffic?
  • Are people linking to your content? This is one of the most important ways of evaluating the SEO of your content writing because people will link only when your content is worthy of linking.
  • Is your bounce rate coming down? Are people spending more time on your website or blog consuming your content? If they stay longer on your website it means they find your website useful and consequently, it tells Google that your content is useful.
  • Are people sharing your content on social networking websites? This is a very nice benchmark to evaluate the SEO of your content writing. Many people sharing your content on social networking websites means your content is valuable, interesting and worth-sharing.
  • Are you linking to other pages and blog posts from within your website when writing new content? This makes it easier for Google crawlers to find your content.

These are a few ways of evaluating the SEO value of your content.

10 productivity tools that I use for content writing

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10-content-writing-productivity-toolsEvery serious content writer has some productivity tools that he or she uses to enhance his or her, of course, productivity. I do have my favourite content writing tools. In fact, they are not just content writing tools, they are tools that you can use for various activities, but I use them to organize my thoughts, to research information that I gather and to make sure my writing does not contain errors and mistakes.

I keep on experimenting with various content writing productivity tools. So, when I mention these 10 productivity tools that I use for content writing, it doesn’t mean I always use these tools. These tools keep on changing. They keep on appearing and disappearing from my day-to-day activities.

Here are my 10 content writing productivity tools

1) MS Word for writing webpages, blog posts and articles

I don’t use MS Word simply because it’s a word processor because if one wants to use a word processor, there are many available, even free. I use MS Word for content writing because it allows me to work on blog posts and webpages in a blog editor. Yes, there is the template that allows me to write blog posts in MS Word and then publish them (straight away or in draft mode) from MS Word itself.

You have to set up the blog within MS Word and once you have done that you can directly publish to your WordPress blog (most contemporary platforms are available). You can set up multiple blogs.

But that’s just one reason.

The biggest reason why I use MS Word, especially the blog template, is because I can horizontally increase and decrease the size of the window and the text wraps accordingly, just like in a text editor.

flexible window of MS Word

As you can see in the image above, the text has easily wrapped according to the width of the window.

The problem with the main MS Word template is that you cannot shrink the size of the window horizontally. But when you are working within the blog template, you can resize your window just like you can do in a normal text editor.

Talking of text editor…

2) WriteMonkey as my content writing productivity tool

WriteMonkey is a very nifty text editor. It is especially for distraction free writing. Once installed you can customize its layout according to your preference. You can either work in full-screen (the text editor takes up the entire screen) or if you press the escape key on your keyboard, you can resize the editor according to your preference. It also has a typing sound. You can have your own color scheme, your own fonts, your own font sizes and basically everything can be customized according to your preference.

Previously I have also talked about the Q10 text editor but it hasn’t been updated for years.

3) JotterPad as my content writing productivity tool

JotterPad is a mobile app for writing. In itself it is a great app. You can combine it with your Dropbox account and suddenly you can work on your PC, laptop and mobile device whenever you feel like. I use a combo of JottorPad (on mobile), WriteMonkey (on PC) and Dropbox (on PC and mobile).

These days sometimes I write complete blog posts in JotterPad and they are immediately synced with my PC. JotterPad as one of the best writing apps I have ever used. It has different formats for you to work in; for example, you can work in a newspaper format, a screenplay format and even in normal format. You can also create your custom format.

4) Google Docs as my content writing productivity tool

I’m not a big fan of Google Docs but I often use the service when I’m collaborating with my clients because many clients prefer Google Docs due to its collaboration feature. Another good thing about Google Docs is that even the mobile interface is quite good. Whether you’re working on your PC or your mobile phone, the Google Docs template seamlessly resizes easily. And the content is synced in real-time.

5) OneNote for storing useful information

OneNote I think is quite underrated, especially compared to Evernote. I have never had a problem with Evernote (aside from the fact that the notes cannot be arranged manually) but OneNote is quite flexible.

Just like Evernote, you can clip entire webpages or parts of webpages straight from the browser and then save them and the notebooks and pages that you have created in OneNote. The information organization capabilities of OneNote are great. I have saved massive amounts of research data using OneNote. I also organize my content writing schedule using OneNote.

Google Keep is also great for quickly saving information and notes. It’s quite handy when I need to save some information on my mobile phone and later on I need to access it from my PC.

6) Hemingway Editor as my content writing productivity tool

A good thing about the Hemingway Editor app is that it forces you to write very simple text. As the name indicates, it’s an editor. It comes with its own style enforcer and proofreader. The editor recommends that you write so that even 6th grader can understand. If you are using too many adverbs, if you are using passive voice, if you are using phrases that have simpler alternatives and if you are writing long sentences, it highlights those portions and prompts you to use better alternatives.

I purchased a copy a few months ago but I don’t use it as often as I should. But I do sometimes.

7) Xmind mind mapping tool to organize my thoughts

Do you use any mind mapping tool for writing long pieces of content? It helps you organize and move around your thoughts visually. You can go as deep as you can. These days I am using Xmind. I also used to use Free Mind, but recently it began to have some problem with the version of Java that I have installed on my PC. So, I started playing around with Xmind, and although it is a bit pricey tool, its free version is quite sufficient for what I need to do while planning and writing content.

8) Dragon NaturallySpeaking as my content writing productivity tool

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the best dictation software available these days. Although you can do voice typing using the Google Docs Voice Typing features these days, it cannot equal Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

As I have mentioned that I have cerebral palsy with more than 80% physical disability, I dictate more than I type. Read Looking for a content writer with a disability?

Typing with hands was always a problem. I could use just one finger to type. I knew that Dragon NaturallySpeaking existed but I didn’t want to purchase such an expensive software application. Then one day my wife insisted that unless I bought it, it would be very difficult for me to survive as a content writer in such a highly competitive environment. I have been using it for almost 8 years now and I never fail to upgrade.

9) Google voice typing as my content writing productivity tool

Since I use my mobile phone a lot these days for content writing I must mention Google voice typing feature in the Google Android keyboard. Although most of the Android keyboards these days allow you to glide your finger across the keyboard to write extremely fast, sooner or later I have to resort to using Google Voice. To be frank, Google Voice is more accurate than Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The problem is, it is not as flexible as Dragon NaturallySpeaking when it comes to making corrections and using punctuation. But on a mobile phone, using Google Voice makes it much faster to type.

10) Timely as my content writing productivity tool

Why do I mention Timely? I mention it because after all it is a productivity tool although you cannot directly use it for writing content.

You see, when you are working on your own it is very difficult to monitor yourself. You don’t even realize and you get distracted. While in the midst of writing a blog post or a webpage suddenly you get distracted and start checking, maybe Twitter updates, or something else. Timely keeps you focused. It is constantly ticking.

Timely, if you don’t know, is a time tracking app. Although you can completely use it in a web browser, you can also download and install the desktop app and once you start it, a rectangular interface is always in front of you, telling you that minutes and seconds are ticking away. You don’t want to waste those minutes and seconds. It keeps me focused if I have it running in front of me.

So, these are my 10 productivity tools that I use for content writing. As I have mentioned above, it’s not that I continue to use them. Sometimes I discard them because I want to try out new tools. For example, I keep switching between MS Word and various other writing tools. Recently there was a time when for almost 6 months I didn’t open MS Word even once because the mobile app version was very lousy. I was totally smitten by WriteMonkey. Then I suddenly started using MS Word because one, they improved their mobile version and two, I find it more flexible, more powerful, and almost as easy to use as WriteMonkey.

Do you have your favorite content writing productivity tools? If yes, do share them in the comments section.

Image source: Evernote

What is the importance of content writing in SEO?

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importance-of-content-marketing-in-SEOThe importance of content writing in SEO can never be overstated. With most of the SEO services making content writing an integral part of search engine optimization, you cannot separate content writing from SEO. Read Why you can’t ignore content marketing as an SEO expert.

Why is content writing important for SEO?

One of the biggest reasons why the importance of content writing in SEO never diminishes is that Google prefers high-quality content. Long gone are the days when your content (your links) could get good rankings on the strength of just your keywords and key phrases.

Of course, keywords and key phrases still matter and you cannot hope to get better SEO without creating content around your keywords, but they are not the sole drivers of your rankings. Read 10 tips on how to write SEO content for your website.

Your rankings don’t just depend on keywords. Your SEO depends on:

  • The value of your content
  • The quality of your content writing
  • The keywords and the key phrases that you use
  • The social media attention your content gets
  • The number of backlinks your website or blog gets from “trusted” websites
  • The frequency with which you publish content on your website or blog

Social validation and backlinks these days are as important as the quality of your content, the number of webpages and blog posts, and your keywords. In many cases, even if your content is mediocre, just because it is being linked from different external websites, it enjoys better rankings, so much is the importance of backlinks. Read Relation between content writing and SEO.

You will notice that all the points mentioned above involve content writing unless the primary content that you publish is videos and images.

Unless you write quality content you are not going to get social media attention. People are not going to share your content. People are not going to link to your content. You have to provide value. Your content needs to be well written and relevant. It should be inspiring enough to make people talk about it and link to it. They’re not going to link to your content as a social service. They won’t pay attention unless there is an overwhelming reason to pay attention.

This is where importance of content writing in SEO stems from.

Why does Google give importance to content writing for SEO?

The reason is very simple. What does Google do? It finds useful information for people. If it is not able to find useful information based on the search terms people use, people will stop using it. This is why a large team of math PhD’s at Google are working round-the-clock churning up algorithms to weed out inferior content and push forward high-quality content. Read How to write content for humans but optimize for Google and other search engines.

So, Google’s present and future depends on quality content writing, credible content writing. Without relevant content, Google cannot survive. Hence, it loves you if your content writing is good, and it ignores you, and even penalizes you, if your content writing is inferior. This is why content writing is so important for your SEO.

Brief recap of how to do content writing for SEO

Content writing for SEO isn’t as difficult as it may seem. All you have to do is write for niche topics and stay focused. Aside from this, here are a few content writing tips for better SEO

  • Do detailed keyword research before content writing: Keyword research is very important. Although over-use of keywords in your content writing can get you penalized and your rankings may suffer, writing content around your keywords, as of now, is unavoidable. Focus on long phrases. Write your content as if you are providing answers to questions. This will help you write your content around your keywords or the search terms people use to find your website or blog.
  • Write about something people care about: Create content people would like to find. Write on topics that matter to people because after all people will be searching for those topics. I provide content writing and content marketing services on my blog so it doesn’t make sense that I start publishing tutorials on how to tweak your TV settings, unless the topic is related to content writing and content marketing.
  • Take care of the length: Longer blog posts and articles seem to rank well these days, or at least people are claiming that they do. It must be Google’s another attempt to keep lazy people away. In order to write long blog posts and articles you need to work hard, you need to come up with relevant information to enable you to write longer pieces. Anyway, when you’re writing blog posts and webpages, try to write at least 600 words. In this video Matt Cutts recommends at least 400 words for better SEO but I think this is old story. If you can manage, regularly cross 1000 words and better, try to reach 2000 words. Read The difference between long form and short form content.
  • Analyze your web analytics data routinely: You should monitor your content using Google Analytics and Google’s Webmaster Tools. These will tell you if your content is attracting the right audience. They will tell you what keywords people are using to enable them to find your website so that accordingly you can create either more content around those keywords or create less content around those keywords.
  • Edit your content: Writing, especially quality writing, is a work of passion and when you are writing passionately you tend to skip a few grammar and spelling mistakes. Even established authors have editors. Use an editing tool to write. You might already be using something like Google Docs, Microsoft Word and even OpenOffice. Pay attention to their suggestions. You can also try Hemingway Editor.
  • Rewrite existing content with new perspective: Remember that quality+quantity improve your SEO. Quantity means you need to write lots of stuff. I have observed that many content marketing and content writing blogs keep on publishing the same stuff but with different titles, different words and different links, very cleverly creating new content out of existing content. You can do the same.

The importance of content writing and content marketing in SEO

Content writing, content marketing and SEO are intertwined. You write content, then you market content and this combination of content writing and content marketing yields better SEO.

Should you do content writing just for SEO?

Sure, you can do it, but to achieve what? Companies that earn revenue from advertising may like to do that, write content just for SEO, but if you want to convert your visitors into paying customers and clients, you need to write content that converts. You want to have loyal customers and clients for your business. You can have loyal customers and clients only if you create high-quality content that engages people, delivers value, educates them and makes a mark on their subconscious.

The best way to create a balance between high quality content writing and SEO is, create high-value content, and use the right keywords.

Is content marketing an asset or a cost?

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is-content-marketing-and-assetThese days I’m reading Joe Pullizi’s Epic Content Marketing: How to tell a different story, break through the clutter, and win more customers by marketing less. In one of the chapters he mentions that many marketers consider content marketing as cost and not an asset.

This comes to me as a surprise because I believe everything you have that promotes your business, gets you more leads, gives you more exposure, is an asset.

What’s that signboard in front of your shop or business establishment? What are the employees that help your customers buy from your retail shop? What are the advertisements that you carry out? Are these assets or costs?

The thing is, everything you spend money on is the cost. This is the reality of life. You have to pay for things. If you want to have a very good website for your business, you have to pay the web designer. If you want to improve your SEO, you have to pay an SEO expert. Similarly, if you want compelling content on your website, you have to pay a content writer or a content marketing agency. A premium service is going to cost you.

Having said all this, I always tell my clients that all the webpages and blog posts they are getting our assets, because they are generating business for them, they have no reason to exist. Your FAQs page is an asset. Your about us page is an asset. Your homepage is obviously an asset. All the blog posts that you are publishing to improve your search engine rankings and engage your customers are assets because they are helping you get more business. All the updates that you are publishing on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to engage your prospective and current customers and clients are assets because they give you brand visibility.

People who consider content marketing a cost don’t understand what’s content marketing and the do content marketing simply because the others are doing. They have heard that other businesses are doing great with content marketing and they would also want the same results, but without putting in the extra effort of understanding how to do it and what to expect of it. Read Why content marketing is important for your business.

It’s the same like SEO: most of the people who want better search engine rankings don’t put much effort into understanding what is SEO. They just want higher rankings and for that they are ready to indulge even in those activities that are counter-productive. By the time they realize that they have harmed their rankings rather than improving them, it’s too late and the worst part is, they blame SEO in general rather than blaming their particular activities. Read 5 ways to beat your competitors at SEO with content writing.

Why is content marketing an asset?

In order to understand why content marketing is an asset you first of all need to have a clear idea of why you want to use content marketing for your business. Is it just because you have heard about content marketing and you have heard many people raving about it, or do you really believe it can make a big difference? Read What is content marketing? Explained in detail.

If you simply want to follow people because they seem to be doing cool activities, you are in for a big disappointment if your soul is not into it. In order to make full use of content marketing, you have to realize its importance. Why content matters to your business? Read Why is content marketing so important?

Content marketing is an asset because you use it to build a platform and then due to this platform, you are able to increase your business.

Sometimes a blog post that you publish and then promote may get you direct business or the email campaign that you send may get you direct business but more often than not, content marketing helps you build a platform and that platform eventually helps you convert. Blog post by blog post, web page by web page, you build this platform.

Take the example of a celebrity. Once you are famous, innumerable doors open for you if you have got talent. Suppose you are totally unknown but you are an exceptional writer. Paris Hilton is known for whatever reasons. If both of you approach a publisher who has got a better chance of his or her book being published? I’m not talking about an idealistic publisher.

The same happens with content marketing. It turns you into a celebrity in your own universe. You create your own circle of influence and whoever is inside that circle likes you, trusts you, values your opinion and consequently, when it comes to doing business, prefers to do business with you.

For example, if I’m constantly writing about content marketing and giving you useful insights that you can use to promote your own business, one day when you need someone to do content marketing for your business, are you going to look for a content marketer somewhere else or you would approach me (provided you haven’t heard bad things about me)? Or someone you know needs a content marketing service. Obviously, you are going to approach me.

This is the sort of presence your content marketing creates. This is the circle of influence you create when you do content marketing for your business. In that sense, content marketing is an investment and when you invest, you create assets.