[GUIDE] Should you delete content for SEO ?

[Sheepp]

You might have heard to “delete your thin pages” or “do some content pruning”

But doing this blindly can harm your websites

You should ONLY do this after a proper audit...

and that's basically today's topic.

Let’s see a few things you need to know before deleting a page

-----------------------

First things first, why would this help your search rankings ?


3 different ways it helps :

1. Internal page rank

If you delete some pages, your internal page rank is less diluted thus your remaining pages will have more “link juice”

1. Overall site quality

Most things Google look at are page-level… but not all ! Some factors are site-wise

1. Improved crawling

You don’t waste Googlebot’s time and crawling budget on useless pages. Note that this aspect is unlikely to do anything if your site is not large


But if it can helps, it can also be harmful if you delete the wrong pages !


How ? Here's a few examples

1. Inbound links.

Your pages might have received external backlinks. Remove those pages and you will lose some backlink juice. Yikes

1. non SEO traffic

You’re managing SEO but it’s unlikely it’s the only marketing channel used by the website (and if it is … that’s bad). The page might not rank well on Google but could have value being shared on social media or be a landing page for an email marketing campaign. Don’t delete those !

1. Conversion funnel

It may not be a landing page, but the page may be used in the conversion funnel or even post-conversion. (eg. “thank you” page). Don’t delete those either!

Also: content pruning may not be right for you. If your website is new or small, don't even bother


Now you’re thinking “ok ok but then … how do we get the benefits, without the negatives?”

The answer is by 1. looking at the right thing during your audit, 2. choosing the right resulting action (deleting is only one of different options !)

Look at the big picture : you’re optimizing for SEO, but you don’t want to hurt other parts of the business !

For each page look at :

* Ranking position (by term, per page)
* Traffic (by source)
* Interaction level (time on page, scroll depth etc.)
* Engagements (comments, social shares etc.)
* Inbound Links (quality/type/traffic/conversions)
* Conversion Value (by source)
* If contributes to Conversions (by conversion page/by source)
* Quality/User value of the content
* Purpose of page
* Similarity of page (topic/intent/functionality)
* If it links to important/ranking pages

/////////////////
Side note on your analytics :

Do NOT take a pruning decision based on your analytics alone. It is not registering 100% of your traffic for multiple reasons (GAnalytics lossiness, you following the GDPR/cookie legislation etc..) so you can see 0 traffic in GA yet the page has traffic and it would be a mistake to delete it. Ideally, you should look at your server logs to see all page hits (and filter out the bots)

/////////////////

And you want to check all of those over a duration (at least 13 months, ideally more than 2 years)

Why ? Seasonal patterns
Sometimes, a page has no purpose/traffic the whole year except at a specific date or period.
Do not just look at “last 30 days” and decide based on that : it’s a recipe for disaster.

Time for actions

Once you’ve audited your page you can :

* Leave
* Revise
* Merge
* Remove

Leave
Might be obvious but if the page performs well - DON’T TOUCH IT. You’re likely to make things worse

Revise
If the page fluctuates in the SERPs and/or has low SEO value but performs well on other domains, consider optimizing for SEO without affecting its other purpose.
Make a copy/backup first!

Merge
If you have 2+ pages that serve the same purpose, target the same/similar term(s), overlap in topic etc. - consolidate via 301 Redirect (or canonicalisation) (and update links/sitemap etc.).

Make a backup/extract comments etc. first!

Remove
If the page sucks + has no value + serves no purpose then and only then you can consider removing it.
If it only sucks SEO-wise but provides some value to your visitors, also consider no-indexing.

Then monitor!

Watch your search console, see if things improve.
Watch your analytics, check if conversion rate/value improve.

Make sure you didn’t do any mistake
Even if you did, if you followed my advice you should have a backup and you can reverse what you did.

Note: site quality may take 6+ months to be updated by big G !

Sounds like a lot of work ? It’s because it is. Esp. on large sites !
But it’s worth it. Except if you’d rather see your site tank

 

[chadthornee]

Thanks for this tips

 

[blackbeans]

Thanks for this post.

It's definitely a clear resource when it comes to pruning unwanted and possibly even unproductive content on a typical site.

A lot of content publishers are clueless about the fact that there is such a thing as "website bloat."

If you fill your website with a lot of nonresponsive, flat, dull, unimaginative, and seriously bad content, you're not doing yourself any favors.

Google is focusing more on user experience every passing day.

It's really a good idea to prune but not just for SEO purposes.

I would suggest that people with more than 200 posts on their site start pruning in terms of user intent and user experience.

Put yourself in the shoes of people who found your website using the keywords you're targeting.

Are they getting the kind of experience you would reasonably assume they're looking for?

You have to be honest with yourself.

If the answer is no, then you either have to cut out that content completely, revise it, consolidate your content.

Or, do something that builds up engagement and overall user value.

 

[Panther28]

I would much prefer to revise to improve, rather than delete. I don't think I have the heart to chop down my poor-performing pages. They are only trying their best!

 

[Sheepp]

I would much prefer to revise to improve, rather than delete. I don't think I have the heart to chop down my poor-performing pages. They are only trying their best!

That's true especially if that's your own posts but if you arrive as a SEO on an existing site you can show less-mercy to existing posts written by others

 

[OlafRustle]

A client of mine has hired an SEO consultant who told him to post at least 3 blogposts a week. So he wrote 500 word articles of just what came to mind, without any keywords or anything else in mind. He had over two hundred such posts.
So I deleted 95% of them, most of them without redirects and suddenly his rankings for the other pages shot up.

 

[cynic]

A client of mine has hired an SEO consultant who told him to post at least 3 blogposts a week. So he wrote 500 word articles of just what came to mind, without any keywords or anything else in mind. He had over two hundred such posts.
So I deleted 95% of them, most of them without redirects and suddenly his rankings for the other pages shot up.

Did you serve 410 with these ?

 

[Sana Waheed]

You might have heard to “delete your thin pages” or “do some content pruning”

But doing this blindly can harm your websites

You should ONLY do this after a proper audit...

and that's basically today's topic.

Let’s see a few things you need to know before deleting a page

-----------------------

First things first, why would this help your search rankings ?


3 different ways it helps :

1. Internal page rank

If you delete some pages, your internal page rank is less diluted thus your remaining pages will have more “link juice”

1. Overall site quality

Most things Google look at are page-level… but not all ! Some factors are site-wise

1. Improved crawling

You don’t waste Googlebot’s time and crawling budget on useless pages. Note that this aspect is unlikely to do anything if your site is not large


But if it can helps, it can also be harmful if you delete the wrong pages !


How ? Here's a few examples

1. Inbound links.

Your pages might have received external backlinks. Remove those pages and you will lose some backlink juice. Yikes

1. non SEO traffic

You’re managing SEO but it’s unlikely it’s the only marketing channel used by the website (and if it is … that’s bad). The page might not rank well on Google but could have value being shared on social media or be a landing page for an email marketing campaign. Don’t delete those !

1. Conversion funnel

It may not be a landing page, but the page may be used in the conversion funnel or even post-conversion. (eg. “thank you” page). Don’t delete those either!

Also: content pruning may not be right for you. If your website is new or small, don't even bother


Now you’re thinking “ok ok but then … how do we get the benefits, without the negatives?”

The answer is by 1. looking at the right thing during your audit, 2. choosing the right resulting action (deleting is only one of different options !)

Look at the big picture : you’re optimizing for SEO, but you don’t want to hurt other parts of the business !

For each page look at :

* Ranking position (by term, per page)
* Traffic (by source)
* Interaction level (time on page, scroll depth etc.)
* Engagements (comments, social shares etc.)
* Inbound Links (quality/type/traffic/conversions)
* Conversion Value (by source)
* If contributes to Conversions (by conversion page/by source)
* Quality/User value of the content
* Purpose of page
* Similarity of page (topic/intent/functionality)
* If it links to important/ranking pages

/////////////////
Side note on your analytics :

Do NOT take a pruning decision based on your analytics alone. It is not registering 100% of your traffic for multiple reasons (GAnalytics lossiness, you following the GDPR/cookie legislation etc..) so you can see 0 traffic in GA yet the page has traffic and it would be a mistake to delete it. Ideally, you should look at your server logs to see all page hits (and filter out the bots)

/////////////////

And you want to check all of those over a duration (at least 13 months, ideally more than 2 years)

Why ? Seasonal patterns
Sometimes, a page has no purpose/traffic the whole year except at a specific date or period.
Do not just look at “last 30 days” and decide based on that : it’s a recipe for disaster.

Time for actions

Once you’ve audited your page you can :

* Leave
* Revise
* Merge
* Remove

Leave
Might be obvious but if the page performs well - DON’T TOUCH IT. You’re likely to make things worse

Revise
If the page fluctuates in the SERPs and/or has low SEO value but performs well on other domains, consider optimizing for SEO without affecting its other purpose.
Make a copy/backup first!

Merge
If you have 2+ pages that serve the same purpose, target the same/similar term(s), overlap in topic etc. - consolidate via 301 Redirect (or canonicalisation) (and update links/sitemap etc.).

Make a backup/extract comments etc. first!

Remove
If the page sucks + has no value + serves no purpose then and only then you can consider removing it.
If it only sucks SEO-wise but provides some value to your visitors, also consider no-indexing.

Then monitor!

Watch your search console, see if things improve.
Watch your analytics, check if conversion rate/value improve.

Make sure you didn’t do any mistake
Even if you did, if you followed my advice you should have a backup and you can reverse what you did.

Note: site quality may take 6+ months to be updated by big G !

Sounds like a lot of work ? It’s because it is. Esp. on large sites !
But it’s worth it. Except if you’d rather see your site tank

Useful tips. I also prefer to update your content as it needed rather than delete it. Because it might be the reason to low the authority of your site.