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Do I have thin content?

by bleu
8 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I'm a designer so my site it mostly images with short descriptions and my site totally sucks in Google. I get very little traffic.

Anyway, I was reading that if you have "thin content" that your webpage won't come up in search, okay that's fine, I can fix my pages with more images of my designs in use, more detailed descriptions, and so on, that would be right, right? Oh and try to have my page answer a question that buying my product would solve! I read that somewhere.

Anyway my question: Is it okay to have some pages that are thin?

It's going to take me a long long time to do this, so there will be a lot of pages staying thin for a long time as I try to work this out, or do I have to delete them before I see any results?

Thank you for your help, I need it!
#content #thin
  • Profile picture of the author KylieSweet
    First of all, I would like to ask what is thin content for you? Is is 100 to 200 to 300 words per story? or a content that doesn't have to give or benefit the users?
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    • Profile picture of the author bleu
      My content is images, I'm an "artist" sort of, people buy my stuff and tell me that they like it so I hope that my content is useful in that way, I hope people like to view it and get something from looking at it. I'm sure some people don't like it...

      As far as the text content, it's a short description for each image, one or two sentences and then the title of the image and the year it was created. So less than 50 words per page.

      Based on that alone, the search engine would have to judge the quality of the image to be able to tell if it's thin content or good/engaging content. Right? Or how does that work?
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      • Profile picture of the author paulgl
        Thin content is a whole different ballgame than images.

        This content is just nonsense pasted together with keyword
        stuffing. Thin content can be long, short, or in between.

        You don't have thin content. You have content that google
        either does not know about, or does not rank it highly.

        You need to start getting it out there. Your choice, as
        the choices are many. Give google a reason to rank it.

        Also, be creative and unique.

        Too much to say in one lousy forum reply.

        But it's not thin content. Like I said, thin content can
        be 10,000 words.

        Take a gander at sites like icanhazcheezburger, pixabay,
        freeimages, etc.

        It's about eyeballs and site structure.

        Paul
        Signature

        If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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  • Profile picture of the author bleu
    Awesome, thank you I totally understand what thin content is now and I don't have that.

    So, Google knows about my site, (it's in the index anyway) but does not rank it highly.

    I also do not sell my own work, I sell it on Zazzle and RedBubble and I am an affiliate there as well, so I link to those sites from each page with affiliate links.

    Could that be a problem?

    My keywords are also stupid, I'm pretty sure. For example if I create a cute baby seal image, the title of the page is "Cute Baby Seal" so if I am trying to sell keychains on that page the title should say "Cute Baby Seal Keychains" right?

    That would be going straight for the sale, or do I make the artwork the focus of the page and just mention on the side that the images are for sale on products?

    Thank you!!
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  • Profile picture of the author expresswriters
    Originally Posted by bleu View Post

    I'm a designer so my site it mostly images with short descriptions and my site totally sucks in Google. I get very little traffic.

    Anyway, I was reading that if you have "thin content" that your webpage won't come up in search, okay that's fine, I can fix my pages with more images of my designs in use, more detailed descriptions, and so on, that would be right, right? Oh and try to have my page answer a question that buying my product would solve! I read that somewhere.

    Anyway my question: Is it okay to have some pages that are thin?

    It's going to take me a long long time to do this, so there will be a lot of pages staying thin for a long time as I try to work this out, or do I have to delete them before I see any results?

    Thank you for your help, I need it!
    Here's a guest post I wrote for SiteProNews on thin content that might help you.

    Detailed content, that is well written and not "stuffed" with keywords, is your answer. Be sure to fill all your meta descriptions too. Visuals are important (esp since you're a designer) but copy is what will keep your site from being "thin". Trust me. I have over 80 site pages (500 words/page average) and 400+ blogs (300-3,000 words range each) and I see my Google rank only increase every month. A lot of GOOD content is the way to go.

    Originally Posted by bleu View Post

    I also do not sell my own work, I sell it on Zazzle and RedBubble and I am an affiliate there as well, so I link to those sites from each page with affiliate links.

    Could that be a problem?

    My keywords are also stupid, I'm pretty sure. For example if I create a cute baby seal image, the title of the page is "Cute Baby Seal" so if I am trying to sell keychains on that page the title should say "Cute Baby Seal Keychains" right?

    That would be going straight for the sale, or do I make the artwork the focus of the page and just mention on the side that the images are for sale on products?

    Thank you!!
    Build your site up. Put all your products there. Think of your site as the #1 resource for your customers that you want to build. Research your keywords. I like SEMrush and Wordtracker. Use long tail product descriptive keywords, like baby seal keychains (instead of cute baby seals).
    Signature
    We are:
    E-commerce online content shop. 60 copywriters hand-picked from all over the globe, working together with a passion for the written word. Content strategists, social media managers, copyeditors. We brainstorm writing, create, produce.
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Originally Posted by expresswriters View Post

      Detailed content, that is well written and not "stuffed" with keywords, is your answer. Be sure to fill all your meta descriptions too. Visuals are important (esp since you're a designer) but copy is what will keep your site from being "thin". Trust me. I have over 80 site pages (500 words/page average) and 400+ blogs (300-3,000 words range each) and I see my Google rank only increase every month. A lot of GOOD content is the way to go.

      Build your site up. Put all your products there. Think of your site as the #1 resource for your customers that you want to build. Research your keywords. I like SEMrush and Wordtracker. Use long tail product descriptive keywords, like baby seal keychains (instead of cute baby seals).
      None of that has anything to do with much, let alone an image site.

      Images are CONTENT.

      It's about a whole lot of things to get you to be an authoritative site for YOUR images.

      Tons of sites have the same images....what makes yours unique? You also
      need some sort of CMS to tag your photos. Like I said, so much to mention in one reply.

      But know this: It's not about word count or any other such BS.

      Paul
      Signature

      If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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      • Profile picture of the author bleu
        Thank you Paul.

        I don't use CMS, it's just a straight up small website.

        My images are originals, no one else has them, but I do work in a popular style/niche.

        It's about a whole lot of things to get you to be an authoritative site for YOUR images.
        I'm so lost, where do I start? I don't know what to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author bleu
    Julia I read your post.

    My understanding of my situation now is that I do not have thin content - But it's possible that Google may view my site pages as thin affiliate web pages. Because even there is not a lot of content there (one or two images two or three sentences) and two or three affiliate links.

    It's original artwork that took me a really long time to make and learn to make but to Google it's just an image.

    So, I just need to "get my site out there" and also write "well written, detailed descriptions that are not keyword stuffed".

    Still need more help. Okay, say I make a painting of a seal. I put the image of the painting. I put images of the products with links to where they are for sale. But I don't know what to say about it other than "Cute baby seal with mother on the beach at sunset."

    What do I say?

    I see the sites like icanhazcheezburger don't say much either, let me go look at it again.

    Okay, looked thoroughly. I am not as cool as that site so I might need more. ?

    Thanks!
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