'Thin Content' Penalty?

Here's what could be happening, I'm going to make some assumptions about your site, If one or more is inaccurate then my apologies. Use the accurate information and disregard the rest.

These could be potential problems:
1. Every article on your site has a link outbound from it selling something.

2. Every page is all promoting one product.

3. Google's reviewer doesn't see how you're giving the searcher a unique and great experience.

Think of it this way, you are not Google's customer or their concern. The searcher is. Google is looking for unique content and you have many pages all basically with the same goal of selling this ONE product.

In the future if you want to do reviews make a major blog in your niche let's say it's Camera's.
Make The site name (this is only an example) The Best Camera's On Earth!

Then just blog like a mad man about your beloved niche and ad in reviews, video pages, tech pages, how to pages etc.. with only about 1/2 of the pages linking to something to buy.

This should work well for you.

Patrick

Yeah that's a bummer. But you should just put up 36 pages of pure content now, with no recommendations to buy any products. Like Patrick says.

Obviously, Google is just dictating how they want your site to be, and taking control, captaining YOUR ship, but if you want to be in their search engine...

Well, it's their media. Their rules.

This should be an easy fix though. Just go to EzineArticles and find some people who are posting some TOP NOTCH content in your niche.

Then...

Put their articles on your blog!

Give them their signature link and everything. You have to play by those rules, as well. But it's worth it for you. Just try to pick people who are linking out to content sites, etc.

That way you're not adding additional links to obviously promotional content to your blog, and you can go from "thin content" to "Google approved" in like a day probably.

Marc

Good advice Patrick! Thanks so much. I will start adding some other pages that take the topic in a different direction rather than selling it While I am at it, should I beef up my other pages?

So Marc, publishing articles from Ezine won't look spammy? I have always stayed away from that - preferring to write my own content (and look where it has got me!). So if I publish a few Ezine articles in my niche on my site, keeping the same links as in the original, Google will be okay with that?

Thanks - my brain is thinking now! That is what I needed, a push in the right direction. Tomorrow is a new day to revamp and start fresh

Thanks again!

There is a lot of debate about re-publishing content because it's quote unquote "duplicate content" but it's not a real thing. It's just an internet marketing myth.

Obviously it has to be quality though. And Google probably does reward unique content, but they don't penalize people for republishing high quality content either.

That's why you should definitely follow Patrick's tips. You know, make sure it's well-written, and not in conflict with your point of view.

You definitely want to move in a direction where it's ALL your content, because, well, it's your content and that gives your site authority.

But you could always continue to publish from Ezine as a percentage of your content, maybe 1 or 2 out of every 5 or 10. But for a quick fix, it's perfect.

Marc

Yeah, it's enormously difficult to rank, because the content has already been indexed first somewhere else. But in your case, you don't really care. You're not trying to SEO the article.

You just want Google to stop penalizing you for building your site exactly the way you wanted to build it. Lol those knuckleheads. But like Patrick said, it's their user experience.

Marc

PS. Patrick I would "thanks" you, but I ran out. I tend to do that quickly!

Ok, so I have been going back through my site and it seems that most of my pages have a 2-3% keyword ratio. I am not sure what the going percentage is, but when I read through them it seems to me that the keyword is in there a lot. I rewrote one 1200+ word article and dropped the main keyword ratio to .9%. I think it reads better - to me anyway

So, what is the general idea of keyword density these days? Should I worry about it?

You should basically give valuable information to your readers, and use important keywords that you should select from the beginning after making a research. It’s a good idea to read other people’s articles and then write what you can remember from what you read. You should also include your personal opinion and talk about your personal experiences.

It’s also a good idea to send your documents to an editor for improvements and corrections before publishing them.

Hang on a minute...

Why not just show us the website so we can at least give you some useful advice?