Thin/spun content or No content at all?
-
So I'm working on a site right now that has been plagued with spun/rewritten content..we are talking in the thousands.
Now would it be a smarter idea to just remove all the content or leave the content?
This is an ecommerce site and I'm tasking a few people to rewrite fresh authentic content. So all of the spun/thin content will be removed eventually.
The main question is to just delete it all right now or just replace as we go.
I'd like to know what you guys think.
-
In addition to what EGOL suggested, which is right on - you could also check to see which pages are indexed but not receiving traffic (for say the last 3 months). I would do this by crawling the site and comparing an export of your product pages to an export of your organic landing pages from analytics. Any products that Google has indexed, but not ranking or returning in search are good ones to noindex until you make them better.
-Dan
-
There might not have been a manual spam action taken against the site but it could be suffering from a Panda problem from the thin content.
See information about Panda in Marine Haynes post here...
-
The site itself has valuable and authentic content EXCEPT product pages.
I've got in touch with the spam team at Google and there was no spam action taken on the site. However, I still feel the product pages are doing poorly since I Google the exact text in the product description without "" would not provide that product page...instead links to a article directory (spun content).
-
I would look at the ratio of thin/duplicate content to rich/unique content.
Does your homepage and category pages have rich unique content right now? If they do then you might noindex the product pages and hope that the pages that are still in the index recover.
Then start authoring the content that has the best potential to bring in search traffic. Do that first and work your way down to the lower value pages.
If you have thin content everywhere.... I would reauthor my most valuable pages immediately, publish that then noindex the rest in priority of search traffic potential.
Before I put all of that work into a site, I would be sure that it doesn't have a Penguin or unnatural links problem.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Writing <200 word pieces of content in a 7.5 hour day
My employer has a content writer who is currently working on writing unique descriptions for many pages, on the order of around 150-200 words per piece of content. A recurring theme in this content is to write a list of features such as "it does X, X, X, X, X and X", which can sometimes happen a couple of times during the content and takes up a decent chunk of wording. This content does not require in-depth research over and above reading the about us page of some sites and looking at what services they provide, as well as some quick details like their payment and delivery methods etc. As well as that the writer also writes the Meta Description and then uploads these to a CMS. There are no other tasks. Considering the writer is doing this 5 days a week, 7.5 hours a day, and isn't getting paid a poor or trainee-type wage, what would you say would be an acceptable amount to achieve on the average day? The current average works out to around, or slightly less than 8 of these pieces of content each day. Thoughts?
Content Development | | crystal.fde1 -
What Content to Write - Hot Topic or More Niche Related?
Hi, Just for example, say you've got a shoe store but shoes are a non-searched-for topic on the informational side. Say fashion models or teenybopper shoppers are both hot topics. Would you recommend writing an article - one of the site's five >2000 word articles on a hot area of the hot topics? Or would you just stick to shoes topics? If you do write on the hotter topics, how does the shoe store owner write on these - they're out of his area of expertise? Does he need a content writer?
Content Development | | BobGW0 -
Any freelance writers with viral content / linkbait experience?
Looking for a great freelance writer to assist in creating linkbait and viral content pieces. Please contact me if you are, or know of, such a person. 🙂
Content Development | | AdamThompson0 -
Questions about reorganizing a website's content structure
I'm working with a publisher who is considering reorganizing the content on their site, which up to now has been presented more or less as a portal site for a variety of segments in a particular business industry. One scenario that is on the table is to remove some content sections altogether and republish them under their own unique domains. It's important to note that this reorganization would be part of a new brand strategy. So my first question is whether this is one of those avoid-at-all-costs scenarios? My second question is if we decide to procede, what kind of time could it take for these new domains to generate the same level of search traffic they are currently pulling in on the portal site? Thanks!
Content Development | | accessintel0 -
Who gets credit for content
Does it really matter if somebody takes your content changes it slightly and republishes it? This is my original article on history of house paints which was also published on ezine in Feb. and from google alerts I discovered this page http://www.franklinpainting.com/blog/home/a-brief-history-of-house-painting/ a minimally modified version. It is not easy to create content so these folks just copied and made a blog post. Their are now many versions of this on the web..who wins?
Content Development | | johnshearer0 -
I have created 2 blogs for a client as they have 2 domains (1 for their core business, and 1 for a product). I want to use the same content on both blogs. What is the best way to set this up so there are no ranking or duplicate content issues?
We are pushing SEO for only one of the domains, therefore I would like one to be dominant. We will be sending the blog post via email to their database, therefore each blog needs to have the same content. Thank you!
Content Development | | MarketingResults0 -
Metrics to measure the quality of content?
When trying to decide what is low quality content, page views & bounce rate are the main indicators I use for pages already on site. But, how do you measure the quality of content that you are trying to produce? Is it entirely subjective?
Content Development | | nicole.healthline0 -
Using testimonials to build quality content
I don't see a lot of talk on here about using testimonials to build good content. From what I have seen, the search engines love client testimonials. I haven't found a good service provider for this yet. I'm thinking something combined with Twitter or FB that also allows you to show the content on your site would be great. Can anyone recommend a service like this? I'm checking out a service called, "Quick Vouch" but I haven't tested it yet.
Content Development | | BradBorst0