Content Audit: Should You Delete URLs to Improve SEO?

And wait, now there are curves with the confirmation of Mobile First Indexing that I just saw while formatting the post.

Google, what do you want from us? Is this a strategy to drive us all crazy?

In an attempt to answer this question, I started analyzing the results that were fluctuating the most in the SERPs and I realized something important: there's too much unnecessary content.

This, combined with the “lecture” my father gave me last Saturday about pruning, spring, and the growth of his trees and plants, led me to draw conclusions.

Have you ever analyzed previous content that is now irrelevant or outdated?

It's not something we usually spend much time on, especially if we have small websites, but it is very necessary to:

• Increase traffic.
• Improve rankings.

Let me explain further below.

Gathering Data: To Prune or Not to Prune?

At this point, I want to make it clear that when I talk about pruning or removing outdated content, I mean deindexing, updating, or redirecting low-quality content. The goal is the same as the pruning my father talked about: to promote the growth of the tree (in this case, the website)

We are talking about that content that gets indexed in the SERPs and ends up providing results with a lamentable user experience. That type of content is what we need to prune and nothing else.

Still not understanding what I’m talking about?

Look, Google wants you to give the user what they are looking for: relevant and quality information that answers the specific search query made.

If you manage to rank in the top 1, but fail to meet this objective, you won't stay in that position for long. At least that's what theory says and the new logic we see being applied by Google's algorithm and its recent updates.

Have I convinced you yet?

So then the first thing we need to do is a content audit. I won’t go into too much detail because there are hundreds of guides online where you can learn how to conduct a content audit. But I will highlight several important things:

1. Export all URLs and sitemaps and organize them in a clean and orderly Excel sheet.

2. Use Screaming Frog, Search Console and Google Analytics to track all indexable/indexed URLs. And be careful with what we consider indexed URLs. Check out this thread by Iñaki Huerta:

A survey to see what is the best way to call them

What does Google have to do with a URL for you to consider it "an indexed URL"?

(the answers go in order and each one implies the previous ones)

Sorry for the wording that doesn't fit in the answers.

— Iñaki Huerta (@ikhuerta) March 13, 2018

3. Add metrics and relevant information for each URL and note it in your Excel. Titles, descriptions, word count, organic traffic, links, conversions, publication date, CTR, page speed…. Any data is relevant when analyzing the performance of a URL.

Be very careful when interpreting CTR results and time on page because, many times, the user quickly finds the answer within your content and leaves, resulting in a mediocre time on page for our metrics.

4. With all the information organized, it’s time to start the content audit.

Content Audit. Where Do I Cut?

Thin content, content that is no longer relevant, outdated content, and low-quality content that does not respond to the user's search intent are some of the branches we want to prune when conducting this type of content audit.

When you identify all those URLs, you can do several things:

• Rewrite the content and update it to stop being obsolete.
• Delete it if it is low-quality content.
• Apply a 301 redirect to a post that resolves the same search intent (only do this if the old post is well-ranked and receives traffic)

More information on how to conduct a content audit in this article from the Semrush blog.

⊗ An example of irrelevant content that does not meet the user's expectations or search intent:

I searched for “content audit” to link a good post that helps you step by step to conduct it, and the Google results show this:

I clicked on the Semrush result, knowing that they publish quality content on their blog, and I also opened another window with the result from 40defiebre.

My surprise was what I found in the latter. Attached image:

Did it resolve my search intent? No.

What happened? I left immediately.

What did my action result in? An increase in the bounce rate of the article.

Would this be a type of content to prune or suitable for applying a 301 redirect to more relevant content with the user's search? Definitely YES.

And what content should I “delete”?

Even with all this, it is still difficult to talk about the removal of irrelevant content for the user. In general, you can look at the following metrics before jumping to delete and deindex URLs uncontrollably:

• Website traffic.
• Bounce rate.
• Clicks, impressions, and CTR.
• Position in the SERPs.

Note: As recommended by the Roincrease SEO Agency. Even if you stop linking it internally and think the URL is not accessible, remember that if it is in the Google cache or in the Sitemap, it will be crawled again. Consider deindexing it beforehand or permanently deleting the content if you believe it is not relevant.

Which pages should you delete?

Before you cut, you need to weigh whether redirecting that content to relevant content could lead to a better user experience or if investing in improving the quality of the content can “save it” from the abyss. Some may not be worth touching, and you can leave them as they are.

There are many factors to consider, but theory says you can “delete/modify” all those pages that:

Have No Traffic

Do not receive visits.

These contents do not contribute anything and are consuming crawling.

Be careful, because sometimes we condemn many URLs due to a lack of proper interlinking and become responsible for that URL not receiving more traffic, despite having great content.

The link juice that each URL receives from the domain itself and the website structure are mandatory reviews before deleting content due to lack of traffic. Keep that in mind!

Have a High Bounce Rate

I’ve mentioned it. A high bounce rate can be positive or negative:

Perhaps you provide the quick answer to the user, resolve their search intent in just a few seconds, and they simply leave the site. You can try to mitigate this by linking related content, placing some videos, and similar user retention methods.

It can also mean the exact opposite, which is what happened to me with the mentioned 40 de Fiebre post. I can't find what I'm looking for and leave in seconds. This is the bounce that indicates that content does not respond to the user's search intent.

Review the contents of each URL and ensure which of the two explanations is correct.

If the CTR is high, but the time on page and bounce rate “sing,” something is wrong with your content.

Have a Low Number of Clicks

Is your content well-ranked but not receiving clicks from the SERPs? Here the problem would not be the internal content but the rich snippet.

Use copywriting techniques, the plugin to highlight it with stars or symbols within the meta description that catch attention and encourage clicks.

Are in a Medium-High Position

Why isn’t your content in the top positions, and what can you do to boost it? Is it responding well to the user's search intent? Can internal linking to that post be optimized better? Perhaps some linkbuilding is needed to enhance the URL's authority?

If it has hardly any traffic, it is not very important content for your brand or business, and even applying all these techniques to improve SEO does not raise it in Google's ranking, perhaps the best option is to apply a 301 redirect to a related post, a 410, or simply deindex it to avoid wasting crawl budget on something that is not performing well.

How to know what strategy to apply to each one?

It depends on you. I can't give you the answer.

What I can tell you is that content that adds value to your brand, such as new product launches, case studies, or similar, are not going to become obsolete and, no matter how little traffic they have, they do not negatively impact the user experience or your SEO positioning. So why delete them?

And when to update texts?

I would recommend this strategy for all those articles that are receiving traffic, have good SEO metrics, but whose information has become outdated.

For example: imagine you have a post about the best anti-wrinkle creams that you wrote last year and that is ranked among the top results on Google, receiving traffic. Probably throughout this year, new anti-wrinkle creams have hit the market. Why not update the list of creams and add a nice “Updated 2018” to the rich snippet title?

And now, after the content pruning, comes the dreaded deindexing. Some people hint at their success stories after performing a massive deindexing of duplicate or low-quality content.

Okay Nuria, if I spend my wonderful time reviewing all my content and applying everything mentioned, will I improve my website's SEO and rise in the rankings?

I don’t know.

There are many factors that influence web positioning, and what is certain is that all these actions are positive for your brand image and for the user experience of those who come to your page in search of answers, products, or services.

If the goal is to improve user experience, how can we not conduct a content audit and get rid of all the junk? It’s almost an obligation. We should all do it from time to time.

Source: https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/17548/content-pruning-for-seo/