Thin Content: How to Find It and Fix It Before AdSense Review

Thin content means pages that give a visitor little or nothing they couldn't get elsewhere: a 200-word summary of other people's articles, a product page copied from the manufacturer, a city page where only the name changes. Length isn't the measure. A 300-word page with a measured answer isn't thin, and a 2,000-word page padded with generic advice can be. To fix it, sort every weak page into one of four piles: improve it, merge it, redirect it, or delete it. Then apply for AdSense once the site's average page is clearly useful.

What Google actually says

Google doesn't use one official definition of "thin", but several policies describe it from different sides:

• AdSense's publisher policies don't allow Google ads on screens "without publisher-content or with low-value content" or that are "under construction" (valuable inventory policy). This is the policy behind the "Low value content" rejection.
• The same policy says: "Don't place ads on automatically generated content without manual review or curation."
• Google's spam policies describe thin affiliation as pages where "product descriptions and reviews are copied directly from the original merchant without any original content or added value", and doorway pages that funnel visitors to one destination (spam policies).
• The helpful content guidance asks whether content provides "original information, reporting, research, or analysis" and whether it adds "substantial value when compared to other pages in search results".

None of these mention a word count. Google says so directly: "Are you writing to a particular word count because you've heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, we don't.)"

Common types of thin pages

Type	Example	Why it's thin
Rewrite	"10 Benefits of Green Tea" rebuilt from the top five search results	Nothing new compared with the sources
Stub	A 120-word post that ends with "more coming soon"	Doesn't answer the question
Template page	/plumber-in-ankara, /plumber-in-izmir, … with one paragraph swapped	Doorway pattern, near-duplicate
Copied product page	Amazon listing text plus an affiliate button	Thin affiliation
Embed-only	A YouTube video with two lines of text	The value belongs to the video owner
Archive pages	Tag pages with one post, empty categories, date archives	Listings, no content
Placeholder	"Sample Page", "Hello world!", lorem ipsum	Unfinished site
AI batch output	300 posts published in one week, same structure, no sources	Scaled, unreviewed

AdSense reviewers look at the site as a whole. A few short pages next to strong ones are normal. Trouble starts when weak pages make up most of what a reviewer sees.

How to find thin pages on your own site

You don't need a paid tool to start. Use your sitemap and a spreadsheet:

1. List every URL. Export sitemap.xml (or your CMS's post list) into a sheet. Add the tag, category and author archive URLs your CMS generates as well.
2. Add three columns: main-text word count (excluding menu and footer), organic clicks from Search Console in the last 12 months, and "what does this page give that others don't?" in one sentence.
3. Flag pages where the last column is empty or vague. "Explains X" doesn't count. "Shows our test of X on 3 phones with battery numbers" does.
4. Look for template sentences. Copy a sentence from one page and search your site for it: site:example.com "is one of the best places to". If it appears on dozens of pages, those pages share a template.
5. Check the archive layer. Open five random tag pages. If most list only one or two posts, that's a lot of thin URLs.

Approvalens does this automatically for up to 5,000 pages. It extracts the main text, finds sentences repeated across pages, and rates each page on a scale modelled on Google's quality rater guidelines (Lowest to Highest). The methodology page explains how the ratings work. Google page quality explained covers the rater scale itself.

The four decisions: improve, merge, redirect, delete

Each weak page gets one decision:

Improve

Use this when the topic is worth covering and you have something real to add. Things that actually add value:

• First-hand evidence: your photos, your measurements, screenshots of your own results.
• Specifics: prices with dates, model numbers, exact settings, local addresses and opening hours you checked.
• A clear answer early. Put the answer in the first two sentences, then explain.
• Sources for claims you didn't test yourself, linked inline.
• A named author with relevant experience.

Before: "Green tea has many benefits. It is healthy and contains antioxidants. Many people drink it every day." After: "A 240 ml cup of brewed green tea has about 30 mg of caffeine, roughly a third of a cup of filter coffee. I tested three brewing temperatures with the same leaves. At 70 °C the bitterness was gone, and at 95 °C it was the strongest flavour in the batch."

Merge

Use this when you have five short posts on overlapping questions ("how to descale a kettle", "kettle limescale vinegar", "kettle cleaning lemon"). Combine them into one strong page and 301-redirect the old URLs to it. It also removes keyword cannibalization.

Redirect

Use this when a page is outdated but another page on the site already covers it better. Redirect it to that page with a 301.

Delete (or noindex)

Use this for placeholders, sample content, empty categories, expired announcements and auto-generated pages nobody visits. Return 404 or 410. For archive pages you want to keep for navigation, use noindex instead. Don't redirect deleted pages to the home page in bulk, because Google treats that as a soft 404.

How much to fix before reapplying

There's no official threshold. In practice, aim for these:

• Everything in the main menu leads to pages you'd be happy for a stranger to read.
• The ten most recent posts and the home page are clearly substantive.
• Template and placeholder pages are gone, not just hidden from the menu.
• Most remaining posts would pass the "what does this give that others don't?" test.

Cutting a site from 120 posts to 60 good ones is normal. Fewer good pages beat many weak ones. See how many posts you need for why the "30 posts" rule doesn't hold.

Mistakes to avoid while fixing

• Padding. Adding an intro, a "what is X" section and a conclusion to reach 1,000 words makes a page longer, not better.
• Changing dates without changing content. Google's guidance specifically asks whether you're "changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed".
• Mass AI rewrites. Running 200 thin posts through a rewriter produces 200 different thin posts. See AI content and AdSense.
• Hiding thin pages from the menu but leaving them live. Reviewers and crawlers still find them through the sitemap and internal links.

Find your thin pages

The free Approvalens scan shows your readiness score and top issues. The full report lists every page it rated low and the template sentences it found.

FAQ

What's the minimum word count to avoid thin content?

There isn't one. Google says it has no preferred word count. A page is thin when it adds nothing, not when it's short.

Should I delete thin posts or noindex them?

Delete pages with no value to anyone. Use noindex for pages visitors need for navigation, such as some archives. Improve or merge pages on topics you want to keep.

Will deleting posts hurt my AdSense application?

Removing weak pages usually helps, because reviewers see a higher share of useful content. Make sure your menu and internal links no longer point to the deleted URLs.

Are category and tag pages thin content?

They can be, when they list one or two posts or duplicate each other. Useful category pages with an intro and several posts are fine.

How long after fixing should I request review?

Once the changes are live and visible to a logged-out visitor. Google doesn't set a waiting period.