Why do my pages rank poorly?

[y0kkles]

My website is [domain].com and has around 20,000 pages.

The vast majority of my pages don't rank in the top 3 pages of Google.

For some that have very little content, I understand why.

However, other ([link]) have quite a bit of content, but still do not rank.

Does anyone have any advice that would help me? I've spent so much time and money on this website and I am failing miserably.

My website's content has been up for around 6 months and I do have some back links.

[edited by: brotherhood_of_LAN at 10:35 pm (utc) on Jul 1, 2014]
[edit reason] see terms of service regarding personal URLs, thanks [/edit]

[brotherhood of LAN]

Welcome to the forums. Do please have a look at the forum charter [webmasterworld.com] and ToS [webmasterworld.com] regarding links in posts.

I had the privilege of seeing the example URL you mentioned may indeed have lots of content, but it's not unique content. You can see that by placing a content snippet [google.ca] into Google.

Google likes content, but it likes one version of it too, preferably the source of the content.

If you indeed are the original source, you may want to look into taking action on the other sites that are infringing on your copyrighted material.

Generally, a page ranks well for having unique content that search engines can easily understand and spider, and other people referencing it because of its useful nature.

[y0kkles]

Thanks. Isn't the golden rule to put content on your site that your visitors find useful?

In accordance with that principle, I went through public domain books on surnames and copied the information.

I have zero idea of what unique content I can write about the Clinton surname, Bush surname etc.

[netmeg]

Then you might want to revisit your business plan. If you aren't unique and useful, you won't thrive. You might not thrive if you ARE unique and useful, but you definitely won't if you're not.

[lucy24]

I went through public domain books on surnames and copied the information

If you are in the US, "public domain" generally means published before 1923, with a few useful exceptions. (Elsewhere, it tends to mean "written by someone who died 50, 70 or more years ago.") Now, in some areas, 90-year-old information remains perfectly valid. 2+2 is still 4 ... although the arithmetic textbook that tells you so will probably not be very appealing to the average contemporary reader.

Linguistic information-- including material about names-- may or may not still be valid. You'd have to cross-check with non-PD sources to make sure.

Clinton surname, Bush surname etc

While you're at it, maybe you can sell your readers the "Smith family crest", "Jones coat of arms" and so on. Color me dubious.