Removing content for more traffic?

[LongToeNail]

I'm just getting back into SEO after a very long break. I keep seeing people recommending to delete articles and blog posts that receive no traffic. Some people are claiming that removing these pages from your website will improve rankings for other pages?

Has anyone had any improvements from following this advice? I have a lot of content that doesn't really rank very well, but it is genuinely good unique content that could help people. Deleting it seems like a real shame.

 

[IM Dude]

If it's info content I think it doesn't matter that much. But if it's affiliate, transactional or commercial content then it makes sense.

The seo egurus tell you because they want you to take some action buy there course, buy content writer, seo content writer, buy some keyword tool, buy backlinks.
So unless you delete the content you not gonna take any action to add or improve the rest of the content.
So whatever they say take it with a thick grain of salt.

 

[LongToeNail]

If it's info content I think it doesn't matter that much. But if it's affiliate, transactional or commercial content then it makes sense.

The seo egurus tell you because they want you to take some action buy there course, buy content writer, seo content writer, buy some keyword tool, buy backlinks.
So unless you delete the content you not gonna take any action to add or improve the rest of the content.
So whatever they say take it with a thick grain of salt.

Thanks for the reply, that does make more sense.

 

[1SEOWarrior]

There are two things here.
Point one: you delete the content because it might prevent you from losing the crawl budget. You want your most important pages crawled regularly right?
Point two: You keep those pages and make some improvements so that you can use those to support your more relevant content where necessary.

Either way, you are right. So the choice is yours.

 

[Waifu_tatyana]

Never ever delete content if it fulfills your topical authority in some way, regardless of whether it gets any traffic or not.

You're not wasting Google's crawl budget by writing content that you deem "unnecessary".
Google loves new information that isn't anywhere else on the internet. So if anything I'd say write more "useless in terms of revenue" content (don't confuse it with fluff junk content btw) that solves or addresses a certain topic in your niche, and you'll only strengthen your topical authority in the eyes of a Google.

But if the articles you're referring to are not relevant to your niche or too far away from it semantically, you can change them back to draft until you're done with your current topical cluster.

 

[thienthan]

With Useful Content update. For posts that have no traffic, deleting it will be more beneficial than keeping it. Although Google says: You probably don't need to delete it if the content is useful to users.

 

[BlackShield]

My opinion on this would be. Rather than deleting articles with low traffic, try improving them for search engines, updating the information, and Inter- linking them with well-performing pages to Improve your site's authority and user experience.

 

[l0cke]

I'm just getting back into SEO after a very long break. I keep seeing people recommending to delete articles and blog posts that receive no traffic. Some people are claiming that removing these pages from your website will improve rankings for other pages?

Has anyone had any improvements from following this advice? I have a lot of content that doesn't really rank very well, but it is genuinely good unique content that could help people. Deleting it seems like a real shame.

Instead of deleting low-traffic pages, think about sprucing the up or combining them to make your website even better for your visitors.

 

[NeedMyLink]

Content pruning can be a useful tactic, but it's not always about deleting content. If your content is good and unique, consider updating or repurposing it instead. Sometimes, older content just needs a refresh to align with current search trends or to be made more comprehensive.

 

[blackbeans]

I would be very careful with this strategy.

It's very tempting.

I understand that.

After all, Google has been handing out a lot of penalties and sending less and less traffic.

But there is no such thing as a magic bullet solution.

Removing content to increase traffic only makes sense if you're removing the right pieces of content.

What is Google cracking down on?

Google is looking at thin content pages.

Google disfavors pages that offer very little value.

So start with those.

One of the best ways you can figure out which content to remove from your site is to run an audit on your site.

Which pages even rank?

Which pages don't rank?

Now if they are in the Index and they don't rank, then you should start making a hard decision whether to yank those pages or not.

Maybe give them a little bit more time if they just started appearing in the Index.

But if they've been there for years and they're not really moving the needle, maybe it's time to call it quits on those pages.

Another thing you could look at is if the pages you have are not even indexed.

So get them indexed and wait a long enough time to see if they are worth yanking or not.

 

[Sulphur]

low-performing pages may not drive significant traffic, they may still contain helpful information for potential visitors. However, keeping them is not inherently helpful or harmful but It simplifies your site's structure to focus on pages readers actually find useful. This improves overall site organization and navigation for future visitors.

Reducing the total number of indexable pages minimizes thin content. This can send clearer relevance signals to Google regarding main site topics and goals and Consolidating and redirecting certain topics may strengthen those pages from a linking structure and internal linking perspective.

 

[Titans]

I usually don't recommend removing the articles. You can update those articles with the latest tends and republish them. It will provide some value and authority to your site.

 

[peterleo]

off page SEO is the solution

 

[She Hulk]

I suggest you not to delete the articles with low traffic, try to optimize them for search engines, updating the information, and inter-linking them with well-performing pages on the sites to improve your site's authority.

 

[TechEinstien]

Deleting old content is not a good idea. You can improve old content.

 

[smithjoe7]

If you want to rank your website, then simply improve your content which will get more traffic.

 

[dogar seo]

Avoid to delete the content, you should need off page SEO by guest posting with high authority websites

 

[SyncLive]

Improve the content or delete it

 

[Dirath Wizard]

It is recommended to check the analytics of your website to evaluate the traffic of each page. If a page has significant traffic, it might be worth keeping, but consider repurposing or updating the content before doing so. Conversely, if a page has poor content, no backlinks, and zero traffic, it is best to remove it. Eventually, Google will detect that the page has been deleted and will remove it from search results.