{"id":17548,"date":"2018-02-20T11:35:39","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T09:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cognitiveseo.com\/blog\/?p=17548"},"modified":"2019-11-28T12:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T10:48:00","slug":"content-pruning-for-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cognitiveseo.com\/blog\/17548\/content-pruning-for-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Content Pruning Good for SEO? Case Studies + Experts’ Opinions"},"content":{"rendered":"

There comes a time in our life when some things need to be changed or refreshed. The same happens in the life of content. It might get outdated or irrelevant and that\u2019s when content pruning comes to the rescue.<\/p>\n

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By its nature, pruning means cutting off dead branches or stems, especially to encourage growth. Content pruning was born from the same desire, to remove old or poor quality articles, to get rid of the clutter not to damage the quality of the overall website. But does content pruning bring any results? Does it improve rankings and traffic? Below you can read our well-documented findings, based on\u00a0illustrative case studies and expert opinions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"Does<\/p>\n

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In short, we\u2019ll let you know if cutting off the dead weight of your content will improve your website\u2019s overall traffic and rankings.<\/p>\n

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  1. Content Audit First and Content Pruning Second<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. The cognitiveSEO Content Pruning Story<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Experts’ Opinion on Content Pruning + Case Studies<\/a><\/strong>\n
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    1. Everett Sizemore Experienced a 31% Increase in Organic Traffic<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
    2. Dan Kern Boosted Organic Traffic with over 2,500 Visitors<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
    3. Charlie Whitworth Improved The SEO Visibility for Multiple Websites<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
    4. Derek Gleason Reduced Low-Performing Pages by 50% to Improve Traffic on Site<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
    5. Patrick Coombe Increased Search Visibility by 300%<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    6. What Does Google Say About Pruning Your Content for SEO Purposes<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
    7. Takeaways<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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      1. Content Audit First and Content Pruning Second<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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      Content pruning can be a life jacket for lots of large websites that have a lot of content. To put it simply, content pruning means taking low quality pages and removing them\u00a0from a site\u2019s index<\/strong> in Google and other search engines.\u00a0 You can see an example of low quality content that could be pruned in the next screenshot:<\/p>\n

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      \"reuters-content-pruning\"<\/p>\n

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      Too many low-quality pages indexed in SERP can weigh harder and offer under-performing results, ending up offering a bad user experience.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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      We all know Google doesn\u2019t like it when pages fail to offer what it’s promised to the user, meaning high-quality content, relevant information to the specific search query and trustworthy websites. Failing to offer that can\u00a0lead to downgrading the website from the search results.<\/p>\n

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      If you find yourself in this situation, then there is a need for a change, which implies a content audit. Even if this will lower the process of creating fresh content, it will bring lots of benefits later on because you can cut off the heavy part of bad content that can lower your rankings and traffic.<\/p>\n

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      In one of our previous blog posts we talked already about how to perform a content audit<\/strong><\/a>, whether you\u2019re a search engine optimization beginner or a pro. Firstly, you need to perform such an audit because it will give you valuable information on which pages need improvement and which of them must be deindexed. You won\u2019t believe what you can find hidden under the rug.<\/p>\n

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      A content audit can come in handy for multiple strategies you want to apply to your website and it will give you directions to lead towards the best decision.<\/p>\n

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      Alexander Kesler, an experienced entrepreneur in digital marketing, explained<\/strong><\/a> through a post how important is to have a clean website and how to gain a competitive advantage.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
      Keeping your website fresh and up-to-date is crucial in order to keep your competitive edge and steadily climb the search engine results pages. The underperforming content indexed by Google is pulling your entire website down. The most important reason for periodically pruning your content is reputation. Removing or at least revising underperforming content is the least you can do to welcome your online customers.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      \"Alexander<\/td>\nAlexander Kesler<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      Entrepreneur and President of inSegment\u00a0\/ @alexanderkesler<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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      Pruning for SEO involves the removal of pages from Google\u2019s index, in the worst case. Content pruning, just like any other decision that can heavily affect your website, has proved to be a contradictory topic. Even the opinions of Google\u2019s representatives differ remarkably. After we talked with a few SEO experts, we saw that they have intriguing opinions, too, based on their experiences.<\/p>\n

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      On top of them all, we throw our case study based on what happened with our website\u2019s rankings and traffic.<\/p>\n

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      Make sure you conduct technical audits to identify the pages that truly can be pruned, and those that should not, due to healthy SEO guidelines (white-hat strategies).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

      Our recommendation for pruning content for SEO purposes is to look at the following metrics for each page:<\/p>\n