“Thin content” describes pages that offer little or no value to visitors: very short pages that do not answer anything, near-duplicates of other pages, auto-generated text, or pages that exist mainly to target a keyword. Google does not want to show these pages, and a large number of them can affect how Google evaluates your whole site. In our indexing work, thin content is the single most common reason behind pages stuck in “Crawled – currently not indexed”.
This article is part of our complete guide: SEO for Small Business: The Complete Guide (2026).
Thin is about value, not word count
A 150-word page can be perfectly useful: a contact page, a concise product page with great photos and specifications, or a short answer to a simple question. A 2,000-word page can be thin if it rambles, repeats what everyone else says and never answers the question. Google’s helpful content guidance asks whether the page provides original information, a substantial and complete description of the topic, and insight beyond the obvious. Use that test rather than a word target.
Common types of thin content
Doorway and location pages
Pages for each town with the same text and only the place name changed. They exist to rank, not to help, and are a classic thin content pattern.
Near-duplicate service or product pages
Multiple pages describing slightly different variations with copied text, or product pages using the manufacturer’s description that appears on hundreds of other sites.
Empty or near-empty archive pages
Tag pages with one post, empty categories, author archives on single-author sites and date archives.
Placeholder and “coming soon” pages
Pages published before they have content, often forgotten after launch.
Auto-generated or spun content
Text produced at scale with little human input or checking, rewritten versions of other sites’ content, and pages generated from templates with minimal unique data.
Image-only pages
Galleries and portfolio pages with no text, where Google has little to understand.
Affiliate pages with no added value
Pages that list products with copied descriptions and links, without original reviews, testing or comparison.
How to find thin content
- Search Console Page indexing report: export URLs under “Crawled – currently not indexed”, “Duplicate without user-selected canonical” and “Soft 404”. Thin pages cluster here.
- Performance report: list indexed pages with zero or near-zero impressions over six months.
- Crawl the site: sort pages by word count and look at the shortest ones. Check for duplicate or near-duplicate titles and content.
- Manual review: open each candidate and ask whether a visitor would find it useful.
What to do with each thin page
For every page, choose one of four actions:
1. Improve it
If the page targets a real need and could be valuable, make it so. For a service page, add what the service includes, process, pricing guidance, areas covered, examples of past work, FAQs and a clear call to action. For a location page, add genuine local information: projects in that area, local testimonials, travel or parking details, local regulations. For a gallery, add descriptions of each project, the client’s goal and the outcome.
2. Merge it
If several pages cover the same topic thinly, combine them into one strong page and redirect the others. Five weak location pages can become one excellent regional page with sections for each area. See keyword cannibalisation.
3. Noindex it
If the page is useful for visitors but not for search, such as thank-you pages, thin tag archives or filtered views, keep it live but add a noindex tag. See noindex guide.
4. Remove it
If the page has no value, no traffic and no links, delete it and let it return a 404 or 410, or redirect it if a relevant alternative exists.
How to make content genuinely useful
- Show first-hand experience: photos of your own work, real examples, specific numbers, lessons learned.
- Answer the follow-up questions a customer would ask next.
- Be specific: prices, time frames, materials, steps, locations.
- Add proof: case studies, reviews, certifications, before-and-after results.
- Structure clearly with headings, lists and short paragraphs.
- Keep it accurate and updated.
Before and after: turning a thin service page around
A typical thin service page reads: “We offer professional end of tenancy cleaning in Leeds. Contact us today for a quote.” Two sentences, a stock photo and a button. An improved version explains what is included room by room, how long a typical clean takes, how pricing works by property size, what happens if the landlord is not satisfied, which areas are covered, and answers questions about keys, parking and products. It adds photos from real jobs and two short testimonials. The second page answers everything a customer needs to decide, and gives Google a clear reason to rank it.
What about AI-written content?
Google’s position is that it rewards helpful content however it is produced, and penalises content created primarily to manipulate rankings, including mass-produced pages with little value. AI tools can help draft and structure content, but the value comes from your expertise, examples, data and editing. Publishing hundreds of generic pages quickly is a recipe for thin content and indexing problems.
Site-wide effects
A few thin pages will not sink a site. But if a large share of your indexed pages are low value, Google may crawl the site less and trust new pages less. Cleaning up thin content often lifts the performance of the remaining pages, because crawl attention and signals are concentrated on content that deserves them. This is also why reducing crawl waste helps with Discovered – currently not indexed.
A practical clean-up plan
- Export all indexable URLs from your sitemap.
- Add Search Console data: clicks, impressions and indexing status.
- Mark each page: keep, improve, merge, noindex or remove.
- Start with pages related to your main services.
- Implement redirects for merged and removed pages.
- Update internal links and the sitemap.
- Request indexing of improved key pages and monitor for two months.
Platform notes
On WordPress, check tag, author and attachment pages first. On Wix and Squarespace, check empty collection, gallery and category pages. On Shopify, check collections with few products and product variants with duplicate descriptions. See SEO for Wix and our WooCommerce SEO guide.
From our work
Every case study on this site, from Sip & Scoop to Powersports Software, was written from real project notes: the challenge, the approach and the outcome. That is the difference between a portfolio grid of images, which Google struggles to value, and pages with genuine substance.
Related guides and services
- Crawled – currently not indexed: what to do when Google reads a page but refuses to index it.
- Keyword cannibalisation: how to stop your own pages competing.
- Google not indexing all pages: why only part of your site is indexed.
- Duplicate without user-selected canonical: how to set canonicals so Google indexes the right URL.
- Google indexing fix service: we diagnose and fix pages Google will not index.
Get expert help
We audit your site for thin and duplicate pages, decide what to improve, merge or remove, and rewrite key pages so they deserve to rank. Start with our SEO services, browse real client results in our case studies, or contact us for a free, no-pressure review of your website.
Frequently asked questions
How many words should a page have to avoid thin content?
There is no minimum. A page is thin if it lacks value for its purpose, not because of its word count.
Can thin content cause a penalty?
Severe cases of spammy or scaled low-value content can lead to manual actions. More commonly, thin pages are simply not indexed.
Should I delete old blog posts?
Delete only posts with no value, traffic or links. Improve or merge the rest.
Are location pages thin content?
Only if they are templated with swapped place names. Unique, useful location pages are fine.
