Programmatic SEO to Build a Directory - blank pages/thin content and SEO penalties?

[ZooRick]

I am using API's and scraping to build a directory that I hope will get organic traffic from Google. The programmatic SEO approach using Cursor AI generates a lot of pages for locations (it is a directory for a country with almost 200 locations (cities, towns, regions). Some of which has 0 businesses in that location, so the page just says "no businesses found in this location".

Will these pages get penalized by Google and will it harm the whole domain, or just get those individual pages de-indexed? Should I delete those locations from the directory before publishing the site?

 

[Steptoe]

Do the pages with 0 business have any other sort of content, such as a general article about x business category in x location? Without some sort of relevant content they're liable to be flagged as thin content pages sooner or later. With AI there's no excuse for there to be no content whatsoever.

You can probably use a better message than 'no businesses found in this location' too, like 'x businesses in x location will be added soon', 'we are busy adding every x business in x location - check back soon!' and similar variations.

 

[ZooRick]

With AI there's no excuse for there to be no content whatsoever.

How many words would be good enough?

 

[Steptoe]

How many words would be good enough?

A couple of hundred at least. Try a prompt like

give me a generic paragraph describing {business type} in {location}. it should be at least 300 words. use language that a high-school graduate would understand

 

[ZooRick]

Thanks! I will try that.

 

[NeedMyLink]

Google doesn’t love thin content, especially when it provides little value like “no businesses found” pages. I’ve used programmatic SEO with directories in the past, and these types of pages can get flagged, leading to a possible penalty for the whole domain, not just the individual pages.

 

[CPANathan]

I am using API's and scraping to build a directory that I hope will get organic traffic from Google. The programmatic SEO approach using Cursor AI generates a lot of pages for locations (it is a directory for a country with almost 200 locations (cities, towns, regions). Some of which has 0 businesses in that location, so the page just says "no businesses found in this location".

Will these pages get penalized by Google and will it harm the whole domain, or just get those individual pages de-indexed? Should I delete those locations from the directory before publishing the site?

Cursor AI sounds cool, you could try prompt the OpenAI API using Python and outputting to CSV for prep for WP All Import too; there's a hundred cool ways about the job.

 

[RichMedusa]

try to improve these pages, since this kind of thin content can be flagged as mentioned above

 

[pcsup]

Cursor AI sounds cool, you could try prompt the OpenAI API using Python and outputting to CSV for prep for WP All Import too; there's a hundred cool ways about the job.

Kindly could you please you explain this, or even better give an example of the python script

 

[CPANathan]

Compile a list of your services, topics, articles, archives and whatever else needs work, compile a list of your target locations

create x variations for y locations

 

[john alex12]

Pages with no useful content (e.g. "no businesses found") can hurt SEO, so it's best to exclude or noindex them to avoid weakening your site's overall quality signals.

 

[CPANathan]

I offer programmatic SEO support for directories, with strategies to handle empty or thin location pages. I help improve indexing, manage crawl budget, and make sure your structure scales without hurting SEO.

You need membership to do that here though bossman, there's a hundred rules on it.

 

[john alex12]

You need membership to do that here though bossman, there's a hundred rules on it.

oh sorry for that i know it's not good i realize that becuase i am new on here will not any do mistake again

 

[Mack22]

Focus on user experience (UX) by making navigation easy and ensuring the content on each page provides real value.

 

[deep_77]

I am using API's and scraping to build a directory that I hope will get organic traffic from Google. The programmatic SEO approach using Cursor AI generates a lot of pages for locations (it is a directory for a country with almost 200 locations (cities, towns, regions). Some of which has 0 businesses in that location, so the page just says "no businesses found in this location".

Will these pages get penalized by Google and will it harm the whole domain, or just get those individual pages de-indexed? Should I delete those locations from the directory before publishing the site?

Hey, if the majority of your pages are useful and unique, a few “no result” pages won’t ruin your domain. But if too many are low-value, it will hurt crawl budget and rankings.

Use conditional publishing or noindex for low-content pages.

 

[Proxy Cake]

The chatgpt API is very easy to use. Get chatgpt to write you a script to automate the whole process