Deleting Outdated News Pages??
-
Hi everyone,
I'm currently doing a full content audit for my company, in preparation for a website redesign. I've discovered thousands of pages (dating all the way back to 2009) with thin, outdated, and irrelevant content. ie: real estate news and predictions that are now super old news.
According to analytics, these older pages aren't receiving any traffic, so I think the best course of action is to delete these pages & add 404 redirects. In my opinion, this should be a big priority, because these pages are likely already hurting our domain authority to some extent & it's just a matter of time before we're really penalized by Google. Some members of my team have a different opinion -- they worry that deleting 1000 pages could hurt our rankings, and they want to wait and discuss the issue further in 3Q or 4Q (once the site redesign is completed and we have time to focus on it).
Am I wrong to think that waiting is a very bad idea? Google will notice that we've done a major site redesign--we've written all new copy, optimized the UX & content organization to make info easier to find, created new lead magnets, optimized images, etc.-- but we didn't bother to update 1000 pages of outdated content that no one is looking at...won't that look bad?
Do you agree that we should delete/merge all outdated content now, rather than waiting until after the site redesign? Or am I overreacting?
Thanks so much for your help!
-
As EGOL suggests, if the pages haven't received any traffic in the past year or so, then they most likely are dead weight and you need to get rid of them. I would, however, do two things:
-
Review all the links to your website and 301 redirect any news articles or URLs that have links pointing to them. You'll want to make sure that you keep any links that you have pointing to those pages.
-
Rather than use a 404 error on those pages when you remove them, I would use a '410 gone' error to indicate to Google that they're no longer present, have been removed, and they need to remove them from their index.
-
-
I've discovered thousands of pages with thin, outdated, and irrelevant content. ie: real estate news and predictions that are now super old news..... these older pages aren't receiving any traffic...
I would delete them and if the job is easy, redirect them. If they are not easy to redirect I would allow them to 404.
In my opinion, they are right now dead weight and could get you a Panda problem.
I have deleted thousands of similar news pages from my site. We did it every year or two.
I doubt that deleting them would hurt anything. I would do it if this was my site. It might increase the rankings if you have a current Panda problem or if they are sucking too much linkjuice.
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
-
Issue with AMP pages
Hello, We have implemented AMP on our blog pages, but now some of the Web pages are also being shown like AMP pages. ( no footer and no navigation ) What could have gone wrong ? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Johnroger0 -
Is this page low quality?
Hey everyone, I need some help defining a post whether it is low quality or not. I got a post and it's a roundup post having 5 lists of fonts for free download. I actually linked to the sites from where anyone can download the font. The post is driving 300 visits a day but the bounce rate is too high around 90% and the time spent on the post is about 20 seconds on average (I checked it under GA Behaviour > Site Content > Landing pages). Also, I checked the traffic of those sites which I'm pointing in the roundup post and in their referral traffic my website is contributing. Does this mean that people clicking on the post from SERPs then quickly visiting the site to download the font as there are only 6 fonts featured in the post to download (due to six font they are not spending time)? Should I need to improve it or the page is answering query fast? Any thoughts are welcome.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Bunnypundir0 -
Swapping page keyword?
If we have swopped the keyword (leaflet printing) from this page http://www.fastprint.co.uk/leaflet-flyer-printing/ and moved it to http://www.fastprint.co.uk/ But the inner page is still ranking for the keyword is there a way to tell Google?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobAnderson0 -
How long takes to a page show up in Google results after removing noindex from a page?
Hi folks, A client of mine created a new page and used meta robots noindex to not show the page while they are not ready to launch it. The problem is that somehow Google "crawled" the page and now, after removing the meta robots noindex, the page does not show up in the results. We've tried to crawl it using Fetch as Googlebot, and then submit it using the button that appears. We've included the page in sitemap.xml and also used the old Google submit new page URL https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url Does anyone know how long will it take for Google to show the page AFTER removing meta robots noindex from the page? Any reliable references of the statement? I did not find any Google video/post about this. I know that in some days it will appear but I'd like to have a good reference for the future. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | fabioricotta-840380 -
Does Google still don't index Hashtag Links ? No chance to get a Search Result that leads directly to a section of a page? or to one of numeras Hashtag Pages in a single HTML page?
Does Google still don't index Hashtag Links ? No chance to get a Search Result that leads directly to a section of a page? or to one of numeras Hashtag Pages in a single HTML page? If I have 4 or 5 different hashtag link section pages , consolidated into one HTML Page, no chance to get one of the Hashtag Pages to appear as a search result? like, if under one Single Page Travel Guide I have two essential sections: #Attractions #Visa no chance to direct search queries for Visa directly to the Hashtag Link Section of #Visa? Thanks for any help
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Muhammad_Jabali0 -
Facebook page optimization
I'm working with a client who is "under attack" by one unhappy customer. That customer created a Facebook page to share her outrage, and her page is outranking my client's (consistently immediately above his FB page). I've checked all of the obvious things... page name page URL About section, and all business-related data He has MANY more "Likes" than she does, makes posts far more frequently (with much better Engagement), references his company name in almost every Post (as she does), and on and on. My main question is this... are there one or two factors that seem to have the most impact on how a given FB page ranks? Thanks for your help, Moz family! 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | measurableROI0 -
Home Page Rankings Drop
Hi all we have being working with a small local client in the last few weeks getting good rankings using onsite op, and business listings we have been getting good ranking ie top 15 then today we drop right out the top 50, after completing manual checks i see the keywords as all related | glasgow catering | Not in Top 50 | down > 42 | |
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Will_Craig
| catering glasgow | Not in Top 50 | down > 41 | |
| glasgow caterers | Not in Top 50 | down > 39 | |
| caterers in glasgow | Not in Top 50 | down > 37 | |
| caterers glasgow | Not in Top 50 | down > 32 | Also when completing manual checks on the above keywords, the home page is not ranking what so ever, infact its missing i went 300 results deep and cant find it, other inner pages rank but not the home. The only other recent change is that we now have a listing under the Google maps section of the homepage on page 1 any advice www.georgieporgies.co.uk0 -
Deep Page is Ranking for Main Keyword, But I Want the Home Page to Rank
A deep page is ranking for a competitive and essential keyword, I'd like the home page to rank. The main reasons are probably: This specific page is optimized for just that keyword. Contains keyword in URL I've optimized the home page for this keyword as much as possible without sacrificing the integrity of the home page and the other keywords I need to maintain. My main question is: If I use a 301 redirect on this deep page to the home page, am I risking my current ranking, or will my home page replace it on the SERPs? Thanks so much in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ClarityVentures0