Clean Up Your Website: Find SEO Success by Content Pruning

Clean Up Your Website: Find SEO Success by Content Pruning

by Ree

As a solopreneur, every minute you spend on your website counts. Are you wasting time on content that’s actually hurting your SEO?

Content pruning is the process of removing or improving low-quality, outdated, or duplicate pages from your website to boost overall site performance.

Think of it as cleaning out your digital closet—keeping what works and tossing what doesn’t serve you anymore.

“Less is more” rings true in SEO—prune unhelpful content and watch your important pages grow. Removing old or weak web pages often leads to better search rankings. When you use content pruning as part of a content audit, you can boost traffic, streamline your site, and help search engines focus on your best work.

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Contents

You might think having more content is always a good thing, but that’s not the case.

Why Content Pruning Matters for Your Site

When I first started my business, I thought a bigger blog meant more traffic.

I was wrong. More content doesn’t necessarily equal better SEO results.

Google’s algorithm focuses on quality over quantity, which means weak pages can actually hurt your site’s authority.

According to a recent case study, HomeScienceTools.com saw a 64% increase in strategic content revenue after removing just 200 underperforming blog posts. That’s impressive results from deleting content, not adding it.

How much could your business benefit from a 64% increase in revenue? A lot, I bet.

Common types of content to prune

If you’re ready to get started, you need to know what kinds of pages to look for:

  • Thin content: Pages with little useful information
  • Outdated posts: Content with old dates or incorrect facts
  • Duplicate topics: Multiple pages targeting the same keywords
  • Zero-traffic pages: Content that gets no visits or engagement

Taking action to remove or improve your content is a crucial part of a full website review. The key is finding pages that drain your site’s SEO power without giving anything back in return.

Benefits you’ll see from pruning content

So, what’s in it for you? A clean website leads to some amazing results.

Content pruning plays a major role in comprehensive website and content audits. When you remove content with no value, you’re essentially telling search engines to focus on your best content instead of wasting time on weak material.

Robotic spider crawling the web with papers

Here’s what happens when you clean up your site:

A case study by Seer Interactive shows the real impact of content pruning. Their client experienced declining traffic for five years straight. After removing 14,000 low-value pages, they achieved a 23% increase in organic traffic year-over-year.

Imagine what a 23% traffic increase could do for your business.

Steps to Prune Your Website

Ready to clean up your site? Here’s a simple process that works for websites of any size.

4 steps to prune your website content

Conduct a full content inventory

Start by creating a complete list of all your pages. You can use tools like:

  • Google Analytics for traffic data
  • Google Search Console for search performance
  • Screaming Frog for technical crawls
  • Your content management system (CMS) export for a basic page list

Export everything into a spreadsheet so you can analyze the data easily. (I’ve listed more tools further in this article.)

Review analytics to find problem pages

Look for pages that meet these criteria:

  • Less than 50 organic sessions in the past 12 months
  • Fewer than 50 search impressions
  • No backlinks from other sites
  • High bounce rates with short time on page

CNET’s recent content pruning experiment shows how powerful this can be. They removed thousands of articles and saw a 29% increase in organic traffic in just two months.

What could a 29% traffic increase could do for your business in two months?

Make decisions about each page

For every underperforming page, you have four options:

  1. Keep as-is: High-quality content that just needs time
  2. Update: Good topics that need fresh information
  3. Merge: Combine similar pages into one stronger piece
  4. Delete: Remove pages that serve no purpose

Don’t rush this step. Take time to evaluate each page’s potential value.

To make sure you get the best results, it’s smart to follow a clear process that we’ll go over next.

Best Practices for Effective Content Pruning

Source: Styled Stock Society

Following a clear process helps you avoid mistakes and get better results from your pruning efforts.

Keep a regular schedule

Content pruning works best as an ongoing process, not a one-time cleanup.

You should review your content every quarter, or 6 to 12 months as part of your regular SEO maintenance to prevent low-quality content from building up over time and keep your site performing at its best.

Use a systematic approach

The most successful content pruning follows these steps:

  1. Inventory: List all your content
  2. Audit: Analyze performance data
  3. Decide: Choose what to keep, fix, or remove
  4. Act: Implement your changes carefully

Follow this methodical approach so you don’t accidentally delete valuable content or create technical difficulties.

When you delete pages, always set up 301 redirects to send visitors and search engines to relevant replacement content. This preserves any SEO value the old page had.

Also check for:

Avoid These Common Pruning Mistakes

Source: Inquivix

Even with a good plan, it’s easy to make pruning mistakes. Here are the biggest pitfalls to watch out for.

Removing valuable pages that need updates

Don’t delete content just because it’s old. Some pages have good bones or evergreen content, but need fresh information or better optimization.

Before removing any page, ask yourself:

  • Does this topic still matter to my audience?
  • Could I make updates to improve this content instead of deleting it?
  • Are there any valuable backlinks I’d lose if I delete this?

Source: Bluehost

One of the costliest mistakes is deleting pages without setting up proper redirects. This creates 404 errors and frustrated users. Always redirect deleted pages to the most relevant existing content on your site.

Not involving stakeholders

Content pruning can affect other parts of your business. For instance:

  • Marketing campaigns may link to pages you’re considering for removal.
  • Sales teams might reference specific articles.

Since solopreneurs make all the decisions, you don’t have a team to notify before making major changes and deletions. Just be sure to document your decisions in case you ever decide to outsource.

Make Content Pruning Easier with These Tools

Source: Webgator

The right tools can speed up your content audit and help you make better decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of.

Essential analytics tools

Start with these free options:

  • Google Analytics: Shows traffic, bounce rates, and user behavior
  • Google Search Console: Reveals search performance and indexing issues
  • Screaming Frog: Crawls your site for technical SEO problems

For deeper analysis, consider paid tools like:

  • Ahrefs: Comprehensive SEO data and competitor research
  • SEMrush: Keyword tracking and content gap analysis
  • Clearscope: Content optimization and performance insights

Simple scoring systems

Create a simple point system to evaluate each page:

  • Traffic: 0 to 10 points based on monthly visitors
  • Engagement: 0 to 10 points for time on page and bounce rate
  • Links: 0 to 10 points for backlinks and internal links
  • Relevance: 0 to 10 points for topic alignment with your goals

Pages scoring below 15 to 20 points are good candidates for pruning.

Organizing your audit data

Use spreadsheets to track your decisions and results. Include columns for:

  • URL and page title
  • Current performance metrics
  • Action taken (keep, update, merge, delete)
  • New redirect URL (if applicable)
  • Implementation date

This documentation helps you track results and avoid repeating work.

Wrap Up

Content pruning is a smart way to strengthen your SEO and help your site’s best content shine. Include regular audits to review and trim low-quality content, to keep your site health and support higher search rankings.

It may seem like a big job, but remember, every small step you take to improve your website’s health is a win for your business. By focusing on quality, you’re not just improving your SEO; you’re building a stronger, more efficient business that works for you.

Try content pruning in your next website audit for greater visibility.

References

Ashbridge, Z. (2025). Content pruning: Boost SEO by removing underperformers. Search Engine Land. Retrieved from https://searchengineland.com/guides/content-pruning

Content Pruning: Remove Low-Quality Content to Improve SEO. (2025). Conductor. Retrieved from https://www.conductor.com/academy/content-pruning/

Content Pruning Efforts Content Pruning. (2023). Seer Interactive. Retrieved from https://www.seerinteractive.com/work/case-studies/content-pruning-efforts-help-reverse-traffic-loss

Deleting Website Content? SEO Best Practices. (n.d.). Slim SEO. Retrieved from https://wpslimseo.com/deleting-website-content-seo-best-practices/

Goodwin, D. (2023). Improving or removing content for SEO: How to do it the right way. Search Engine Land. Retrieved from https://searchengineland.com/improving-removing-content-seo-guide-430571

Gray, T. (2022). Content Pruning Case Study: How This Online Store Increased Strategic Content Revenue by 64%. Inflow. Retrieved from https://www.goinflow.com/blog/content-pruning-case-study/

Højris Bæk, D. (2024). Content Pruning Case Study: CNET search data suggests it works. SEO.AI. Retrieved from https://seo.ai/blog/content-pruning-case-study-cnet

Huang, B. (2024). What is Content Pruning and Why it Matters for SEO. Clearscope. Retrieved from https://www.clearscope.io/blog/what-is-content-pruning

Patel, N. (2024). Examining a Content Pruning Case Study. BacklinkManager. Retrieved from https://backlinkmanager.io/blog/examining-content-pruning-case-study/

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