We have DR 75 but spread ourselves too thin — would you restructure hard?

We went too broad on SEO and I think it hurt us.

We built out a marketplace across a lot of service verticals: handyman, plumber, tattoo artist, DJs, photographers, catering, and many more. The idea was to win SEO across lots of service + city combinations.

What happened instead is that we stretched ourselves too thin. Google never really ranked us meaningfully across most of those categories.

The interesting part is that we did get real traction and good unit economics from Google Ads in a few services:

• DJ
• Fotograf
• Catering

These are also the categories actually bringing in business.

So my current feeling is that the smaller and more niche the site is, the easier it is for Google to understand what the site is about and what it should rank for.

Now I’m considering restructuring the whole site around those 3 categories and cutting a lot of the rest. The 3 are related enough that they can fit under one clear positioning, and I’m thinking of making them the main focus across the homepage, header, footer, and internal linking.

We also have a lot of old pages and backlinks, so I don’t want to throw away existing authority. The domain itself is strong, so this feels less like a link problem and more like a focus/site architecture problem.

One thing I’m also trying to understand: if we 301 a few thousand old pages, how long does it usually take Google to really process that and reassign the signals? And is there any practical way to speed that up besides clean redirects, updated internal links, XML sitemaps, and Search Console?

At this point my instinct is to stop trying to be everything and make the site clearly about the few categories that already work.

Would you restructure aggressively around the 3 winners, or keep more of the old categories alive in the background?

And for those who’ve done a big prune/restructure before: did Google respond well once the site became more focused?

That’s a complex situation. I haven’t handled a restructure for a site of this scale myself, so I’ll hold off on giving specific 'how-to' advice.

However, one thing caught my eye: you mentioned not ranking well in most categories. Have you done a deep dive into competitor analysis for specific keywords? For instance, for 'City + Plumber,' are the guys outranking you hyper-niche specialists (e.g., sites only about plumbing), or are they just high-authority generalist domains?

Analyzing this might give you the clarity you need on whether to go through with the restructure and how aggressive you should be. It’ll show if Google in your niche is currently favoring topical relevance over raw domain authority.

ai bots party here

Haha, not a bot, mate. Just a non-native speaker using translation tools to make sure my points come across clearly.

haha no I just used gpt to better structure my post

soa0611 said:

ai bots party here

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Ambiguiltor said:

That’s a complex situation. I haven’t handled a restructure for a site of this scale myself, so I’ll hold off on giving specific 'how-to' advice.

However, one thing caught my eye: you mentioned not ranking well in most categories. Have you done a deep dive into competitor analysis for specific keywords? For instance, for 'City + Plumber,' are the guys outranking you hyper-niche specialists (e.g., sites only about plumbing), or are they just high-authority generalist domains?

Analyzing this might give you the clarity you need on whether to go through with the restructure and how aggressive you should be. It’ll show if Google in your niche is currently favoring topical relevance over raw domain authority.

Click to expand...

When it comes to competitors its mainly local businesses with a very specific service only in plumbing. I guess it makes sense if Google sees that this is all about plumbing rather than a website that offers multiple services. was wondering if you have an idea about how I can delist pages and let google know we no longer do that ? I can do redirect or other status code returns just wondering if theres a way to speed it up for google to discover the change

You are thinking in the right direction. Spreading across too many categories can dilute your site’s focus, so doubling down on the 3 services that already perform makes a lot more sense. It is better to restructure your site around DJ, photographer, and catering, while redirecting weaker or unused pages instead of removing them completely. After setting up 301 redirects, Google typically takes around 2–8 weeks to pass signals, so just maintain clean internal linking and updated sitemaps.

I wouldn't simply clean up the pages. It's better to rebuild the structure around what's already working. Weak categories don't necessarily need to be removed. Simply remove them from visibility no index, fewer internal links and direct all authority to two or three key clusters. What really works in these cases is internal linking and page-level signals. If key pages start receiving the bulk of the internal authority, plus a couple of direct external links, google will understand the site's new focus much more quickly.
301 redirects help, but they're slower. The fastest way is to simply shift the internal structure and signals.

Focusing on 3 winners is worth it. We cut the rest and pushed signals to the core clusters; ROI jumped once we reduced dilution. Don’t delete history—just hide the weak stuff and redirect authority where it matters. Give Google a clear map and solid internal linking; give it 2–8 weeks to shift.