How to do a good SEO pruning of useless content
There is always a need to do a good SEO pruning job , especially to eliminate useless posts and content from portals with many pages. The same goes for blogs that often tend to chase news and online discussions. Result? Publications that do not bring traffic, do not rank and that have no value in terms of SEO. But they do not make a difference for the user, the reader.
So there is a need for a radical intervention, a pruning that is extreme and without regrets. But with an eye to the basic logic - on-site SEO - which allows us to lighten without debasing .
Table of Contents
What do we mean by SEO content pruning?
Why do you need to do SEO pruning of pages?
How do you create pages that you then have to delete?
Taxonomies
Search intent
Obsolescence
Is all content that doesn't generate traffic deleted?
How to proceed with SEO pruning of the website
Website Analysis
Content Pruning
Editorial definition
Do you want to do some SEO pruning work for your site?
What do we mean by SEO content pruning?
We are inside a metaphor dedicated to the work on trees and plants, so by SEO pruning we mean exactly what it means for a gardener: always cut with judgment . Those who prune a plant do not limit themselves to a little trimming, if necessary they cut everything. Even with a hacksaw.
But never more than necessary. The SEO expert does the same on websites: he analyzes the project, reports everything on an Excel sheet and identifies the pages that have little credit in the eyes of Google and the public. Then he suggests the path to follow to eliminate the problem. By the way, what is the knot to be solved?
Learn more: How Google Search Works
Why do you need to do SEO pruning of pages?
In reality, SEO pruning must be done if you want the website to work in the best possible way without screwing itself with its own hands. Many think that this path is linked to the need to lighten the work for Google and optimize the crawl budget. That is, the resources that, based on the authoritativeness of the work done, the search engine grants to a website for scanning and indexing.
This is true for large projects, for mammoth e-commerce sites and institutional portals, but a medium or small-sized website or a corporate blog should deal with this problem above all for a much more serious reason: SEO cannibalization of the contents on the website.
That is, publishing pages that are not only the same in content but also with the same search intent . This goes against the main goal: positioning in Google's SERP .
You publish more, give vent to editorial desires and insert tags thinking of giving the search engine new resources to position. In the meantime you only create competitors to your own content.
Custom SEO Dashboard
Keep track of your project's most important metrics.
How do you create pages that you then have to delete?
One of the most complex questions, there are a thousand ways to create content that seems very useful in the immediate but then becomes useless, obsolete, completely meaningless. So it is right to make a little order in this house in which editorial works that do little traffic live.
Taxonomies
They are a source of duplicate content that Google tends to ignore up to a certain point . Then they become harmful. For example, the author pages of a blog: what good are they if there is only one signature on the blog?
Just create a series of photocopy pages of the archive: use the Yoast function to eliminate these repetitions. The same goes for data archives and for categories or tags that have few articles in the list.
yoast archive cleaning
Blog tags are a source of duplicate content if you have decided that each blog post must have at least 20 different tags. For more information, read the article dedicated to SEO optimized tags .
Search intent
That is, the search intent, what people want when they type a query. Once upon a time, we reasoned differently, specifically a search corresponded to a page. For example, I could create a publication for hotels in Rome and another for hotels in Rome and yet another for hotels and hotels in the capital of Italy. Today, this is no longer the case: the evolution of the search engine takes us elsewhere.
There is an intent that covers several keywords and I can position myself for many searches if I work well with web copywriting and keyword research . Alternatively, SEO pruning of useless content that cannibalizes itself must come into play, slowing down any push towards positioning on Google .
Obsolescence
Sometimes it happens, content gets old and no longer has any reason to exist. Or maybe it does, but not in that form. There are articles that simply cannot be recovered, like special offers communicated on the blog or press releases. Because those publications are tied to a specific historical moment: once the public's interest has passed, they stop generating traffic .
Other articles become old , even if the theme is still in vogue, the content is no longer valid. In these cases, a double-edged editorial work comes into play: on one hand, you cut, on the other, you update. In the meantime, a calendar with an editorial plan is outlined to avoid errors in the future.
Stop, it is not that simple at all. What does not generate traffic does not necessarily have to be eliminated as Joh Mueller also points out in this webinar. Why is it important to clarify?
First of all, there may be posts or pages that Philippines Phone Numbers don't receive many visits but attract incoming links. So they are characterized by valuable backlinks and woe betide you if you delete them. Sure, you could do a 301 redirect and it would still be worth the PageRank upgrade, but why do that?
It is better to update and keep the page alive with fresh information. The same goes for pages that have a structural function such as the about me section or contacts.
There may be pages that do not rank but that generate direct or referral traffic. This is why before doing SEO content pruning work, you need to carefully evaluate some aspects.
How to proceed with SEO pruning of the website
Let's start from a premise: pruning posts and pages is SEO work that, in one way or another, becomes indispensable for all websites that tend to grow and structure themselves. Only single-page sites and those composed of two or three institutional resources can exempt themselves from this cut.
Yes, SEO pruning work has the same evolutionary basis as the activities carried out with the Deming cycle . So it's a bit like the one aimed at web performance : it requires consistency.
Website Analysis
First, we work on metrics and empirical observation. Then we need to identify the pages that have few visits (usually less than 10 per year) in relation to impressions and poor positioning, also evaluating growth prospects. In short, what is the work to be done?
ied out are reported, step by step. In order to monitor the actions and results.
