Google has had a serious focus on content quality this year, cracking down on content that the search engine deems ‘low quality’ or ‘thin’. While this has prompted considerable efforts on the parts of most websites to boost content quality, it has also led to a small amount of hysteria. The question is: just how dangerous is low-quality content on your site?

Content quality has always been an SEO concern. Without quality content, sites have always had difficulty attracting inbound links and keeping the attention of site users. Traffic levels, bounce-back rates and online reputation all suffer when a site’s content quality is low.

The recent updates to Google’s algorithm, however, have introduced the idea of content that’s ‘thin’. Thin content doesn’t necessarily have the markers of what was once thought low-quality content. It can be well written, and apply search engine optimisation tactics in a suitably subtle manner. When Google started devaluing sites with too much thin content earlier this year, many site owners had to scramble to replace content. But should they have?

The key term here is ‘too much’. Only those sites that relied primarily on thin content have suffered under Panda. Site owners who have concentrated on boosting content quality gradually recover.

Thin content isn’t too bad. If you have a few pages that are a little thin, it’s unlikely that you’ll be booted off the first page of the SERPs. However, it’s always a good idea to improve your content where you can. Talk to our experts at SEO Consult Australia about improving content quality on your site.