Question about pruning your website/blog for SEO
-
Hey all,
So I checked out "The What, Why, and How of Pruning Your Website for SEO" and recently read ahrefs well known article on seo strategy and both really focused on the idea of removing poorly performing pages on your site for an SEO boost.
I've asked this question in a few different ways before but I was hoping to get some more insight into this.
If my company's blog has thousands of posts going back 5 years, 99% of which only really had pageviews on the day of their release and then after that receive no traffic, direct or organic, am I better off getting rid of (301) 99% of these posts and only sticking to/improving important/performant posts?
Does anyone know how other blogs/sites deal with these sorts of issues. Where one function of the blog is to provide informative articles and the other function to post little tidbits (with barely any copy and rapid relevancy decay rate) meant to promote interaction with the blog community (like polls or one line contest winner announcements).
Is this an issue of misusing the blog? For example, should the blog just be used for articles and all contests etc. be moved to social media?
Thanks in advance for your insights,
Roman
-
Many sites end up pruning content when a site refresh is hit. If a post has no organic traffic, no traffic at all, didn't link to anything, didn't get linked to and has no social shares, there should be no reason to keep it around. If it has any of that in the last 12 months, I'd keep it up.
This is one of those topics that you have to be careful with though. Don't go overboard and don't do it expecting a major rise in organic traffic. This is more of a housekeeping item. And as with most housekeeping items like fixing internal redirects, external redirects, etc, it can all combine to help with search performance.
As Mike alluded to and I've done with clients in the past, I'd take the candidates for removal, pull a list of their titles and review to see if they can be updated. Use the topic again. It's a good way to supplement your content calendar.
-
Hi Roman,
Good question. I've dealt with this issue quite a bit. I think one element worth considering is the quality of the posts and what stood between them and organic success. I've found that pages on our site often didn't succeed for reasons that were in fact fixable. So, before declaring search success bankruptcy on them, I've tried to breathe new life into them... if the content warranted it. This could be adding content, refocusing on a different keyword, improving the link profile of the page or the on page elements. In any case, making good content isn't easy, so best to not lose some that could have worked.
Having said that, I've 301'd one helluva steaming truckload of old/failed pages and had good success, as well as a warm satisfied feeling afterwards. Best of luck!
Mike
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can you redirect old abandoned Twitter/Facebook accounts?
My client has a Facebook profile and a Twitter account that they have abandoned. These pages also have old branding and we would like to redirect these pages in some way to the current Facebook and Twitter accounts. I did find this article but it's 3 years old and not sure this is works: http://www.thesearchagents.com/2011/12/how-to-do-a-301-redirect-on-twitter-even-though-twitter-doesnt-allow-it/ What's the best way to do this?
Social Media | | RosemaryB0 -
Setting up a google+ page for a decorating ideas business website
I am looking to set up a google + page for a decorating ideas website, should I create a business page or a community and where do circles fit in to this. Many thanks for your help I have seen how to set up but not sure where communities and circles fit in for business sites. thanks
Social Media | | Pday0 -
SEO relevance of Google+. Should we bother getting Google+?
I've read mixed results about the SEO benefit of having Google+ for your company. I'm sure that a very small % of my sites user base has Google+ so if we did implement Google+ into our site I don't think we would really have anyone following us...or in our circle or whatever they call it. So are you guys using Google+ for your business and if so, do you think it's worth it for me to if I know barely any of my users have Google+? Google really seems to be trying to plush Google+ for business, with replacing Google places with Google+ Business and requiring people to log into Google+ to rate businesses. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Social Media | | SheffieldMarketing1 -
Are links from Pinterest 'do follow'/do they have any SEO benefit?
Afternoon all, I know there is a question about Pinterest that was asked in February but I guess it was a fairly new beast then and people were still unsure about its use for marketing/SEO etc. I run an events business and on our Pinterest profile I tend to pin random stuff I find on the net, themes we are running (directly from our website) and other Pinterest users. I have received several 're-pins' and people are really starting to follow us now. What I am keen to know is whether or not having lots of followers/re-pins on Pinterest has the same effectiveness from an SEO perspective as having lots of Facebook/Twitter/Google+ followers and whether or not these re-pins are 'do follow' links or have any SEO benefit whatsoever? Many thanks Rob ps: Pinterest page is http://pinterest.com/eventa/ , if anyone has any tips on how to better utilize this then that would also be greatly appreciated 🙂
Social Media | | RobertHill0 -
Anyone do SEO for facebook business pages? I'm having trouble with timeline layout.
I am working on my facebook business page and am frustrated with the new "timeline" facebook layout which really does not make sense as a business page. I have not found a way to change it to a traditional layout and have read some posts that said facebook does not allow you to go back from timeline. Does anyone have a good layout suggestions for a facebook business page with SEO in mind? Thanks.
Social Media | | frankthetank20 -
Ways to get the most out of your content/blog posts?
I've been working on posting more content on my blog and now I need a workflow to help me get more exposure on my posts. Currently this is what I'm doing: 1- Write Post 2- Add it to my favorites in Stumbled Upon 3- Post it to Facebook 4- Pin it in Pinterest I would love some more ideas. My goal at this point is to gain greater web exposure. I would love to be they type of blog others actively follow.
Social Media | | continuumphoto0 -
Moderate blog comments Yes/No? Facebook comment plugin?
I was reading outbound marketing and they suggest that a good blog "does not" moderate comments. I have always taken the moderate approach, but their thought was this inhibits a conversation from taking place on the blog. I am wondering what thoughts others may have on this and its potential positive and negative impacts, both SEO and in general. Also I am thinking about using a Facebook plugin with my blogposts. I think this may be a good way to help get social visibility... Has anyone tried this yet?
Social Media | | mmaes0 -
What Social Media Buttons/Links When & Where?
Our web development team members are having a debate on when and where to add various social media buttons / links. The crux of the debate is when does adding various calls to social media services become detrimental to page load time. We have really been focusing recently on optimizing page load speed using YSlow and Google Page Speed tools to tweak templates and pages as much as possible. Our webmaster argues that we should be selective on what pages we add Google+, Facebook LIKE, Twitter/Follow buttons. e.g. just 'important' pages such as the home page. Here is a forum link that speaks of this... http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4358033.htm Bottom line? What are your thoughts on when and where to place various social media buttons and links for Google+, Facebook LIKE and Twitter/Follow. Thanks,
Social Media | | RoyMcClean
Roy McClean P.S. We have pretty much agreed to use AddThis button set on our clients' blog pages that includes FB LIKE and SEND, Google+, Twitter and the AddThis general share buttons.1