When websites struggle to get pages indexed by Google, two of the most common underlying issues are thin content and poor internal linking structure. While these problems may seem minor, they significantly influence how search engines evaluate, crawl, and prioritise your website.
Thin content refers to pages that provide limited information, lack depth, or offer little unique value compared to other pages on the site or across the web. This can include short service pages, duplicated content across similar topics, or pages that repeat the same messaging with only minor keyword changes. Google’s goal is to deliver the most useful and comprehensive results to users. If a page does not clearly demonstrate expertise, relevance, and originality, search engines may delay crawling or choose not to index it at all. In competitive industries especially, shallow content often struggles to gain visibility because it does not signal authority or trust.
Equally important is internal linking. Internal links help search engines understand the structure of your website and determine which pages are most important. When key pages are not linked from primary navigation menus, the homepage, or other high-traffic sections, they can appear less significant in the overall site hierarchy. Pages that only exist in a sitemap but lack contextual internal links are often treated as lower priority. Strong internal linking distributes authority throughout the site and guides search engines to crawl deeper, ensuring important pages are discovered and indexed more efficiently.
Improving both content depth and internal linking strategy can dramatically increase crawl frequency and indexing rates. By creating detailed, unique, value-driven content and ensuring that important pages are clearly connected within your site structure, you send strong quality signals to search engines and improve your overall SEO performance.
