You have tens and hundreds of blog posts on your website. But are they of good quality? Do they have high utility value? Just publishing content isn’t sufficient to win SEO. The quality of the content itself is very important.
Yes, “quality” is subjective. However, there are a few identifiers that can uncover thin content from the good ones. In this blog post, we’ll cover how you can identify thin website content and refresh them to bring you millions in organic views.
Let’s start!
How to Audit Your Website Content and Identify Thin Content
Step 1: Analyze your site’s performance
Assess your website’s current performance. Use tools like Google Analytics to collect data on your website traffic, bounce rates, and more. These metrics will give you an idea of which content you need to focus your efforts on.
Step 2: Perform a content inventory
Create a spreadsheet and list all the pages on your website. For each page, include details like the title, URL, word count, and any relevant keywords. This sheet will help you identify which pages need improvement.
Step 3: Identify thin content
Thin content is typically characterized by low word count, minimal value to users, and poor keyword optimization. Look for pages that have less than 300 words, high bounce rates, or low average time spent by users. These are likely the pages with thin content that need your attention.
Step 4: Evaluate content quality and relevance
Compare your content’s quality and relevance against competitors’ and industry standards. Find out the areas where your content is lagging. (For example, your competitors may have used a lot of images/screenshots in the blog post on the same topic you have written on; should you now also include more screenshots in your blog post? Take notes of such content gaps and discover opportunities for improvement.
Step 5: Check for duplicate content
Duplicate content can negatively impact your search engine rankings. Use tools like Siteliner or Copyscape to scan your website for duplicate content, both internally and externally. If you find any instances of duplication, take steps to either consolidate, rewrite, or remove the content.
Step 6: Monitor user engagement metrics
In addition to bounce rates and average time spent on each page, track other user engagement metrics, such as pages per session, scroll depth, and social shares. These metrics can provide insights into how users are interacting with your content, highlighting areas that may require improvement.
Checklist to Improve Thin Website Content
Here are the proven ways to improve the quality and usability of your thin website content:
- Increase word count
While it’s true that quality trumps quantity, pages with insufficient word count may be considered thin content.
Aim for at least 600 words per page to provide adequate information for users and search engines alike.
However, don’t add words just for the sake of it; ensure that your content remains relevant and engaging.
- Optimize for keywords
Perform thorough keyword research to identify the terms your target audience uses when searching for information in your niche.
Use these keywords strategically throughout your content, focusing on title tags, headings, and the first 100 words.
Remember to maintain a natural tone and avoid keyword stuffing, which can negatively impact your search engine rankings.
- Improve readability
Break up large blocks of text with headings, subheadings, bullet points, and images to make your content more digestible for users.
Use short paragraphs and simple language to convey your message effectively.
Improving readability not only enhances the user experience but also helps search engines better understand your content, contributing to higher rankings.
- Add internal and external links
Strengthen the structure of your website by linking to other relevant pages, guiding users to additional information.
This helps improve user engagement and can lead to a lower bounce rate.
Also, link to authoritative external sources to support your claims and enhance your content’s credibility. This practice is beneficial for both users and search engines.
- Update outdated content
Regularly review and update your content to ensure it remains current and relevant.
Replace outdated statistics, add new findings, or expand on topics as needed.
Fresh and up-to-date content signals to search engines that your website is a reliable source of information, which can result in higher rankings.
- Add media
Incorporate various forms of media, such as images, videos, and infographics, to support and enrich your text.
Multimedia elements can help illustrate complex concepts, engage users with different learning styles, and increase the time spent on your page.
Additionally, multimedia can improve your content’s shareability, attracting more traffic to your site.
- Enhance page speed
Page loading speed is a crucial factor in both user experience and search engine rankings.
Optimize your images, leverage browser caching, and minimize HTTP requests to ensure your pages load quickly.
A fast-loading page can reduce bounce rates and encourage users to explore more content on your site, which can positively impact your SEO.
- Implement schema markup
Schema markup is a type of structured data that helps search engines better understand your content.
You can improve the way your content is displayed on SERP (which will potentially improve your CTR) by adding schema markup.
Read complete guide on ways & plugins to add schema markup.
Rich snippets, such as review stars, event details, or recipe information, can make your content more appealing to users and contribute to higher rankings.
- Test and analyze
Regularly monitor your website’s performance using tools like Google Analytics to evaluate the effectiveness of your content improvements.
Analyze metrics such as organic traffic, bounce rate, and average time on page to identify which strategies are working and which need further adjustments.
Conclusion
Reworking your thin website content can seem tedious. But with the right approach, you can transform your old content into an SEO powerhouse that attracts significant traffic and user engagement.
If you need help with the content refresh, creation, or optimization, consider getting help from experts. Get in touch with any of the top SEO companies in Colorado Springs and leverage their expertise to fuel your organic growth story.