Unique Pages with Thin Content vs. One Page with Lots of Content

[RCDesign74]

Is there anyone who can give me a definitive answer on which of the following situations is preferable from an SEO standpoint for the services section of a website?

1. Many unique and targeted service pages with the primary keyword in the URL, Title tag and H1 - but with the tradeoff of having thin content on the page (i.e. 100 words of content or less).

2.  One large service page listing all services in the content. Primary keyword for URL, title tag and H1 would be something like "(company name) services" and each service would be in the H2 title. In this case, there is lots of content on the page.

Yes, the ideal situation would be to beef up content for each unique pages, but we have found that this isn't always an option based on the amount of time a client has dedicated to a project.

[Lumina]

Not to sound cheeky, but neither is preferable. The solution with lots of thin content means you have a lot of pages that hold little to no use to a user, while also putting you at risk for, well, thin content. The solution that keeps all of this content on one page means that your page is poorly targeted (especially bad since this is a service page), that the content will be difficult to digest for users, and that you have no real options for navigation to a specific service.

Since it's clear you know you're in a "lesser of two evils" situation; my recommendation would be to go with the approach of having many pages. You can at least target these pages better, and it leaves you open to adding more content later on. However, this option is a bigger risk : bigger reward. You might get penalized for thin content. But if time is the absolute in this circumstance, I think that relatively thin pages may be more manageable.

As an amendment, might I recommend adding a couple of universal content sections? Meaning, within these thin pages, along with the 100~ words of good, unique content, having a content section that's the same throughout each, so that you have more content on these pages without sacrificing as much time. Something like links to relevant blog articles, customer testimonials, or a personable explanation of the company's methodology regarding the delivery of services.

[ChrisAshton]

I completely agree with Bryan on this one on all counts.

As for how you go about structuring this content process, it really depends on just how limited your time is. If you go through each landing page and write a sufficient amount of content (my recommendation is always 1500+ words per primary landing page), is it going to take you weeks to get this done or are we talking more like 6 months?

Also, don't neglect the user experience in your planning process. If the vast majority of your users are arriving on the site looking for one particular thing, make sure they're going to land on a page rich in value; don't just give it an arbitrary 100 words to stave off the search engine Gods and move on!