Can splitting an article result in thin content?

Lizzi Sassman, a technical writer from Google, spoke on a recent Google Search Office Hours video about the common misconceptions for “thin” content, and what it really is.

What is thin content?

It’s not uncommon for people to think that thin content means that a page is of a low word count. In reality, content can be described as “thin” if lacks any value, which isn’t necessarily the same thing. Brief, concise content can be valuable, while long pieces can be full of repetition and meaningless content.

An example of thin content that has no value can be a cookie policy page, as multiple website may use the same cookie policy template, which would then be flagged as thin content as it has no value for users. What we recommend is that you “no-index” these, as they don’t need to be crawled or indexed in search engines.

Another example of thin content are doorway pages used to rank for particular keywords. Some websites use the exact same content and just change the city or location the landing page is focused on. These pages run the risk of being flagged as internal duplicate content, which is why every page on your site should have unique content.

What about splitting long articles into multiple articles?

The person who asked the question on the Office Hours video was wondering if they should split their content into multiple articles instead of having a long in-depth article, and have each of the pages interlinked, which would be considered as pagination.

Sassman answered:

“It can be good to have a thorough article that deeply explores a topic, and it can be equally just as good to break it up into easier to understand topics.”

This means that using pagination and splitting a long article into a more manageable size is fine and should have no negative effect on your rankings.

Are you looking to grow your business in 2023 and beyond? Get in touch with our friendly team at Engage Web to find out how we can help your business.

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Jonathon Roberts

Jonathon lives and breathes marketing, boasting a degree in Business Management and Marketing Management and a diverse list of experiences both professional and voluntary. Having grown up in the thick of the digital and social media age, he has been quick to dive into online marketing and search engine optimisation in his career and spare time, spanning such fields as academics, local business and sport.

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