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Improve Your Thin Content And Rank Higher In Google Search Results – Video From Matt Cutts

In the above video Matt Cutts tells us about thin content with little or no added value on your site. He explains what to do if you get a message in your Google Webmaster tools about thin content. You will need to update your content and add more unique good quality content.

If you want to rank higher in Google you need to have good unique content and plenty of it. One of the main things to get your site on page one of Google search results is content. The term “content is king” says it all. On a lot of sites that talk about SEO always use the term and its true, the more quality unique well written valuable content your site has the higher it will rank in Google.

Some Examples Of What Google Would Consider Thin Content

A simple example would be doorways. Doorway pages usually represent efforts to rank for a wide range of similar keywords with multiple pages that really just represent the same topic. A common example is pages that target keyword rankings for specific regions or cities, and then funnel users to one page.

If you are making a lot of different pages with a slight variation of keywords then have a big button on each of those pages that says click here, is not good.

Or if you make pages that are all exactly the same and then only change the city on each page, hoping to rank in all the different cities. If you looked at that page it would seem fine, but looking at all the pages you would quickly see that the only text that changes is the city. To Google this would look like duplicate content and could get your site punished on search results.

If you want your site to rank higher in Google make sure you do not have thin content, its not the number of pages a site has, but rather the quality.

To Many Affiliate Links Can Damage Your Rankings

Next Matt tells us about affiliates, he mentions thin affiliates. An affiliate program is a link or banner you have on your site that a visitor will click on to purchase a product and you get some sort of commission when that visitors makes a payment or signs up.

Affiliates are a great way to increase revenue on your site. But you should know the affiliate product, it helps if you have used it as then you can write about it with first hand knowledge and recommend it and get some some sort of commission when a visitor buys it from your site.

A thin affiliate is different. Its when you just have a lot of affiliate banners or links on your site, with no research on those banners or links.

Ask yourself why would visitors click on those links, you need to have reviews, videos and good tutorials on your page about the affiliate you are trying to promote.

Coping Any Content From Other Sites

Have you ever gone and copied content from other sites just to help you get more content on your page when you build a website, using a website builder.

Matt says if you go to article sites or sites that offer free articles and include that content on your site be careful. If your site consists of these types of articles users will not be impressed, and your site will not be what users are looking for.

If you do a search for an article on Google and then copy content from that article for your page think about this:

The article is already on Google this means that Google spiders have already indexed those articles and know word for word that article. If you copy or scrape words there’s a good chance you will be damaging your credibility with Google. Do not copy from other sites that have been indexed. Use unique content when you develop your new website.

You need to have original content on your site and your site will rank higher in Google, and other search engines.

What Can You Do To Rank Higher

So what can you do to rank higher in Google? If you have copied content from other sites then go through your site page by page.

Delete pages with similar content, like if you have pages with all the same content apart from the city. Rather include all the cities on that one page, and have outbound links that are no follow to the city you trying to rank for.

Example: Outbound links in your content are really great for your sites SEO and will help you rank higher in Google, especially when you place the primary keyword in the anchor and link to a high authority site.

Do Not

Do not take an article and spin it, then place the spun article in your content.
Copy content from other sites just to get extra content, it will not help your site rank higher in Google.
Have poor articles that are duplicated with only the city changed.

Try To

Think about your page topic, write your content in your own words, using both short and long keyword phrases in the content.
Have at least one image on the page and place your primary keyword in the image alt text, you can even name the image with your primary keyword.
Have at least 400 to 600 words on a page, more is better Google loves good unique well written content and plenty of it.
Include descriptive well written headings with a selection of different keywords.

Remember Content Is King

Remove any content you didn’t write yourself, and replace it with unique good quality content written by yourself.

Content should be unique. It must be something you wrote as you have used the product or have experience about the product. Tell your visitors in your own words how good the product is and why they should use it.

If you not writing about a product then write about your experience, tell your story, or get your message out but do it by writing it all in your own words.

Allow comments on the page and visitors can also help to build the page with some great comments and reviews.

At the end of the day Google is looking for the best page for the term searched. If you have a useful compelling page full of great content then who knows, your page could be on page one.

Users would also bookmark your site, tell their friends and subscribe to your RSS feeds and you would have a great website that works, remember content is King.

Google Is Always Changing Its Algorithms Make Sure You Keep Your Site Up To Date

Google is always changing its Algorithms and if you want your site to rank on the first page of Google for its keywords you will need to keep up to date with whats happening, or find a SEO expert to do it for you.

If you want to improve your website ranking you need to update your site regularly updated with fresh new content. Maybe start a blog and keep blogging about your niche.

Google “Hummingbird” Algorithm

Google “Hummingbird” Algorithm – Google has a new search algorithm, the system it uses to sort through all the information it has when you search and come back with answers. It’s called “Hummingbird” read the article from Search Engine Land – (http://searchengineland.com/google-hummingbird-172816) FAQ: All about the new Google “Hummingbird” Algorithm.

Google Penguin

Google Penguin – For those new to the whole “Penguin” concept, Penguin is a part of Google’s overall search algorithm that periodically looks for sites that are deemed to be spamming Google’s search results but somehow still ranking well. In particular, it goes after sites that may have purchased paid links, read the article from Search Engine Watch – Google Penguin.

Google Panda

Google Panda – What is Google Panda? Google Panda is a change to Google’s search results ranking algorithm that was first released in February 2011. The change aimed to lower the rank of “low-quality sites” or “thin sites”, and return higher-quality sites near the top of the search results. Wordtracker.com – Google Panda update survival guide.

Subscribe to the above sites to keep updated.

This way any new updates will be emailed directly to your email and you will be able to keep up with all the latest updates from Google.

There Have Been Many Changes In The World Of SEO

Over the last decade, there have been many changes in the world of SEO. Important changes that have shaped SEO – Algorithm 1.01.

Google looks at over 200 different things when deciding the position of a website on its search engine for the keyword search term.

If you want your site on the first page of Google one of the main things is to create fast loading pages, be careful of how many images, the size of the image, scripts, plugins and anything else that can slow a page down.

Next where is your site hosted? how fast is your hosting? slow hosting means slow loading pages, means poor rankings. Go to our website test tools section and do a speed test on your site. The faster your pages load the better they will rank.

Hosting plays a vital role on your SEO. Make sure you have fast reliable hosting when creating your own website.

Make Your Site Easy To Navigate

If you make your site easy to navigate visitors and search engine spiders will be able to find your content a lot easier, and this will improve your bounce rate.

Build passive internal linking and improve your website SEO. This will help the Google bots and your visitors find more content on your site.

Internal link Structure – is a great way to improve SEO on your website. Find out more about internal link structure here. Use anchor text rich keywords in the links and content and where ever possible link to other internal pages on your site, this will help the reader and spiders move more easily around your site.

External Links – Try to link out to high ranking good quality sites with the same topic as your site. Offer a guest post on your site, other site owners will write articles for your site if you allow a do-follow link back to their site.

Each page or post you build should also have a few out bound links to pages with the same topic as the page you are building.

Do a search for the keyword of the page on Google and use any of the websites that are on the first page for the search term used. Those website will be high quality.

Include two or three out bound links at the bottom of your page, or in the content.

By recommending those sites you are also helping to boost your page for that keyword, as Google will follow those links and those pages are ranked for that keyword.

Broken Links

Dead or Broken links can also effect your WordPress SEO.

Pages on your site that have been deleted have you removed all the links to those pages? What about out bound links from comments or that you have recommended, when was the last time you checked if they are live?

Dead and broken links will harm your sites reputation with Google.

You can use the broken link checker to find dead or broken links on your site, it will scan pages on your site and give you a report of the page the broken link is on and the url of the broken link.

Use the broken link checker at least once a month and remove any dead or broken links on your site that it finds, this will be good SEO practice. The broken link checker is in our website test tools section.

Make sure you have a site map. Sign up to Google Webmaster tools, also submit your site to Google Webmaster tools.

The Difference Between On Page SEO And Off Page SEO

On Page SEO – is anything you do that is on your website. The most important on Page SEO Tips are:

Improve your thin content and rank higher on Google Optimized titles and descriptions.
Proper URL Structures
User friendly navigation
Optimized internal links
Text Formatting (use of h1,h2,bold,italic etc)
Image optimization
User friendly 404 pages
Fast loading pages
Out going links (no dead or links to bad sites)

Content is King remember this. Have unique content that is well written and plenty of it, never copy from other sites and include keywords. Add new pages or have a blog and post on it at least twice a week. Google loves a site that is updated all the time.

Off Page SEO – refers to techniques that are used to improve the position of a website in search engine results. Off Page SEO is link building (building in bound links to different pages on your site) and promoting your site where ever possible.

Check for grammar and spelling mistakes on each page with the website spell checker on our website test tools page.

Remember take your time with your SEO if you get it right each page of your and you could rank on the first page of Google, for your keyword search term.