To delete or not to delete? Here’s how to deal with non Ranking articles

Did you know that search engines are never likely to find about 60% of blog content within two years of being published? In order to get success websites today, content pruning has become an important SEO strategy due to this fact.

Content pruning means evaluating your website content and deciding what you want to keep, what to update, and what to delete. When our articles are not receiving traffic or ranking, we may think about the difficult question of whether it is better to delete these articles or keep them on the website in hopes of becoming better later.

The answer isn’t always straightforward, When you remove content from your website, it may have some potential benefit (like crawl efficiency or contributing to overall site authority), But, at the same time, there’s risk involved, You may lose valuable backlinks or historical content that could still serve a purpose on your site.

In this guide, you will find a data driven framework to help you decide such that you are not at odds with the market. This comes from my experience of 19 years of working in digital marketing and AI, You will be taught when to delete, when to update and how to implement a sustainable content management strategy to keep your website performing.

Understanding the SEO Impact

When we talk about removing content that doesn’t perform well, we need to understand how these pages affect your overall SEO performance, After nearly two decades in digital marketing, I’ve seen how Google’s algorithms have evolved to prioritize quality over quantity. Let’s explore the key factors that determine whether keeping or removing low-performing content is the right move for your website.

How Google Evaluates Site Quality

Google doesn’t just rank individual pages it evaluates your entire website. This holistic approach means that low quality content can drag down your whole site’s performance.

Google’s E-E-A-T framework (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) has become central to how the search engine judges content quality, Here’s what this means for your website:

• Experience: Google values content created by people with first-hand experience on the topic. Pages that lack this personal experience may be seen as less valuable.
• Expertise: Content should demonstrate knowledge and skill in the subject area. Articles that are shallow or contain factual errors can hurt your site’s perceived expertise.
• Authoritativeness: This refers to your reputation as a reliable source in your field. Having many low-quality pages can diminish your authority.
• Trustworthiness: Google wants to promote content from sites it considers trustworthy. Pages with outdated information or misleading claims reduce trust.

When you have non-performing content, Google might interpret this as a sign that your site lacks these E-E-A-T qualities. In my experience working with clients across various industries, sites that regularly audit and remove or improve underperforming content typically see better overall rankings.

The ‘Content Quality Threshold’ Concept

One important idea in modern SEO is the “content quality threshold.” This concept suggests that Google establishes a quality baseline for your domain based on all your content.

Think of it like this: if 30% of your content is low quality, Google might lower its opinion of your entire site, This creates what some SEO experts call a “quality drag” effect.

Here’s what the research shows about this concept:

Content Quality Distribution	Potential SEO Impact
90%+ high-quality content	Maximum ranking potential
70-89% high-quality content	Good ranking potential
50-69% high-quality content	Limited ranking potential
Below 50% high-quality content	Significant ranking challenges

I’ve observed this pattern repeatedly with clients, For example, one e-commerce site I worked with had over 5,000 product pages, but only 2,000 were generating traffic. After removing 1,500 of the poorest performing pages, their overall organic traffic increased by 34% within three months.

The key takeaway is that your weakest content can hold back your strongest content, By removing or improving low-performing pages, you’re effectively raising your site’s quality threshold in Google’s eyes.

Crawl Budget Implications

“Crawl budget” refers to how much time and resources Google will spend crawling your website, This is especially important for larger websites with thousands of pages.

When you have many low performing pages, you’re wasting your crawl budget on content that doesn’t benefit your site, Here’s why this matters:

1. Limited resources: Google allocates only so much time to crawl your site. If it’s spending time on poor pages, it might miss your valuable content updates.
2. Indexing efficiency: A bloated site with many low value pages takes longer to index, meaning new content may take longer to appear in search results.
3. Resource allocation: Server resources spent on maintaining and serving non performing content could be better used elsewhere.
4. Update frequency: Pages that Google considers more valuable get crawled more often, ensuring their content stays fresh in the index.

In my 19 years of experience, I’ve found that websites with streamlined, high-quality content tend to get crawled more efficiently and have new content indexed faster.

Consider these crawl budget statistics from a site cleanup project I managed:

• Before cleanup: 10,000 pages, with Google crawling about 200 pages per day
• After removing 3,000 low quality pages: Google increased crawling to 350 pages per day
• Result: New content appeared in search results in 2-3 days instead of 7-10 days

The tradeoff between maintaining a large content library and ensuring crawl efficiency is real, By focusing on quality over quantity, you not only improve how Google perceives your site but also how efficiently it processes your content.

Remember that Google’s systems are designed to reward quality. When you remove content that doesn’t meet user needs or search intent, you’re aligning your site with Google’s core mission: to connect users with the most relevant, high-quality information.

Potential Benefits of Removal

When you’re running a website, every page matters. Think of your website as a garden. Sometimes, you need to prune away weak plants to help the strong ones grow better. The same goes for content that isn’t performing well. Let’s explore why removing underperforming content might be the right move for your site.

Improving Site-Wide SEO Performance

Removing low quality or zero traffic content can significantly boost your overall SEO performance, I’ve seen this happen countless times in my 19 years working with websites.

Google’s algorithms look at your entire website to judge its quality. When you have too many poor performing pages, they can drag down your good pages too, This is what SEO experts call “content debt.”

Content debt works like this:

• Google crawls your site and finds many pages with no traffic
• These pages often have thin content or outdated information
• Google may conclude your entire site lacks expertise or authority
• As a result, even your good pages might rank lower than they should

In my experience, removing the bottom 20-30% of non performing content can lead to noticeable ranking improvements for your remaining pages. One client saw a 34% increase in organic traffic after we removed 78 zero-traffic blog posts that hadn’t received visitors in over a year.

Here’s what typically happens after content removal:

Time After Removal	Typical SEO Impact
1-2 weeks	Initial fluctuations as Google recrawls
1-2 months	Improved crawl efficiency
3-6 months	Better rankings for remaining content
6+ months	Sustained traffic growth to quality pages

Remember that Google has limited resources for crawling your site. When you remove poor content, you help Google focus on your best pages, which can lead to better overall performance.

Enhancing User Experience Signals

Poor performing content doesn’t just hurt your SEO it can damage how users see your entire site, When visitors land on low quality pages, they often leave quickly, creating negative user signals that affect your whole website.

Here are the key user signals that improve when you remove poor content:

1. Bounce Rate: When users find unhelpful content, they “bounce” (leave without viewing other pages). High bounce rates tell Google your content isn’t satisfying users.
2. Time on Site: Quality content keeps visitors engaged longer, Removing weak pages often increases average time on site.
3. Pages Per Session: Users explore more of your site when every page provides value.
4. Return Visits: People come back to sites they trust to deliver consistent quality.

I worked with an e-commerce site that removed 200+ outdated product pages that were generating zero sales, Within three months, their site-wide metrics improved dramatically:

• Bounce rate decreased from 73% to 58%
• Average session duration increased by 42%
• Pages per session went up from 1.8 to 3.2

These improvements happened because visitors were no longer encountering dead end pages with outdated information, Every page they landed on provided value, building trust in the brand.

Think about your own experience as a web user. When you find one bad article on a site, do you feel excited to read more from that same source? Probably not. Removing poor content helps ensure every interaction with your site is positive.

Focusing Resources Effectively

One benefit many site owners overlook is how content removal helps you use your resources more wisely. Managing a website takes time, money, and energy all of which are limited.

When you maintain hundreds or thousands of pages, you’re spreading your resources thin, Here’s how removing underperforming content helps:

Editorial Resources:

• Content updates require writer time and expertise
• Each page needs regular fact checking and information updates
• Fewer pages mean more attention for each remaining page

Technical Resources:

• Server resources are used more efficiently
• Page speed improvements are easier to implement
• Security updates and maintenance become more manageable

Marketing Resources:

• Content promotion efforts focus on your best material
• Internal linking strategy becomes more powerful
• Social media sharing drives traffic to your strongest content

I helped a financial blog reduce their content from 1,200 articles to 400 high-performing pieces, With the time saved on maintaining those 800 removed articles, they were able to:

1. Update their remaining content more frequently
2. Create in depth guides that attracted 3x more backlinks
3. Develop a newsletter that drove 27% more return visitors
4. Improve page loading speeds by 40%

The truth is that most websites have limited resources. When you try to do everything, you often end up doing nothing particularly well, By removing content that doesn’t perform, you can redirect those resources to create and maintain truly exceptional content that actually drives results.

Think of it as focusing a flashlight. When you spread the beam wide, the light is dim everywhere. When you narrow the beam, you get a much brighter light where it matters most. Content removal helps you focus your beam on what truly matters.

Key Risks and Considerations

Before you rush to delete those zero traffic pages, let’s pump the brakes and look at what you might lose. In my 19 years working with websites across industries, I’ve seen many site owners regret hasty content pruning. Here are the critical factors you need to consider.

Backlink Value Preservation

Deleting pages with backlinks is like throwing away free SEO juice. Even if a page isn’t getting direct traffic, it could be passing valuable link authority to the rest of your site.

How to identify pages with valuable backlink profiles:

1. Run a backlink audit: Use tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz to identify which non-performing pages have external links pointing to them.
2. Evaluate backlink quality: Not all backlinks are equal. Look for these quality indicators:
   • Domain authority of linking sites
   • Relevance to your industry
   • Natural anchor text
   • Placement within content (not footers)
3. Quantify potential loss: Before removing any page, calculate its link equity contribution to your overall site authority.

Here’s a simple decision matrix I use with clients:

Backlink Profile	Traffic Level	Recommended Action
Strong (5+ quality links)	Zero/Low	Redirect or improve
Medium (2-4 quality links)	Zero/Low	Consider improving first
Weak (0-1 quality links)	Zero	Safe to remove if outdated

Remember, a page with even one high quality backlink from an authoritative source might be worth keeping or redirecting rather than deleting outright.

Long-Tail Traffic Potential

Some pages might be sleeping giants, waiting for the right moment to bring in highly targeted visitors. In my experience, these hidden gems often convert better than high traffic pages.

Why long-tail content matters:

Long tail keywords typically:

• Have less competition
• Attract more qualified visitors
• Convert at higher rates
• Build topical authority in niche areas

Seasonal content resurrection potential:

I once worked with a gardening site that nearly deleted their “Winter Vegetable Planting Guide” in summer when it had zero traffic. Six months later, that same page became their third-highest traffic driver with excellent conversion rates.

To evaluate seasonal potential:

1. Check historical performance: Look back 12-24 months in Google Analytics or Search Console to identify any seasonal patterns.
2. Analyze keyword seasonality: Tools like Google Trends can show if your target keywords have predictable seasonal spikes.
3. Consider industry cycles: Some topics naturally follow business, academic, or holiday cycles that might not be immediately obvious.

Before removing seemingly dead content, ask: “Could this page have value during a different season or under different circumstances?”

Historical Authority Retention

Google values websites that demonstrate depth and expertise in their field, A rich archive of content, even if some pieces aren’t traffic superstars, can strengthen your site’s overall authority.

Maintaining topical authority through content depth:

Think of your website as a knowledge ecosystem rather than a collection of independent pages, Each piece contributes to your site’s perceived expertise.

To assess a page’s contribution to your topical authority:

1. Map your content to topic clusters: Identify how each page fits into your broader content strategy.
2. Evaluate internal linking structure: Pages that serve as linking hubs for related content may have hidden value.
3. Consider content uniqueness: Does the page cover an angle or subtopic not addressed elsewhere on your site?
4. Check for featured snippets: Some low traffic pages might own valuable featured snippets that build brand visibility.
5. Assess competitive coverage: If competitors maintain similar content, there might be strategic value in keeping yours.

Removing content that seems irrelevant can hurt your topical authority, I’ve seen it happen to sites who did that. One technology client had a large amount of product specification pages that were not getting much traffic and decided to remove them. After removal, the client noticed that their product pages dropped 5 positions on average in the SERP.

The better approach? Think about combining or enhancing low-performing content that helps your site rather than deleting it.

Google likes sites with a lot of information on a subject. Some times zero traffic pages are the supporting players that give your star content a boost.

Strategic Decision Framework

Making decisions about your content isn’t something you should do randomly, In my 19 years working with websites of all sizes, I’ve developed a framework that helps make these tough choices easier, Let’s walk through a structured approach to decide what to do with content that isn’t performing well.

Content Audit Methodology

Before deciding to remove any content, you need to know what you’re working with, A content audit gives you this clear picture.

Start by gathering data on all your content pieces, I recommend creating a spreadsheet with these key metrics for each page:

• Traffic (total visits over the last 6-12 months)
• Ranking positions for target keywords
• Backlink count and quality
• Conversion rate
• Content age and last update date
• Word count and content quality score

Once you have this data, you can begin to see patterns. Some pages might have no traffic but lots of backlinks. Others might have decent traffic but no conversions.

Here’s a simple rating system I use with clients:

Metric	Poor	Average	Good	Excellent
Monthly Traffic	<10 visits	10-100 visits	100-1000 visits	>1000 visits
Backlinks	0	1-5	6-20	>20
Conversion Rate	0%	<1%	1-3%	>3%
Content Quality	Thin, outdated	Basic information	Comprehensive	Industry-leading

This rating helps you quickly identify which content needs attention. Remember, low traffic alone isn’t always a reason to delete content. A page with few visitors but high conversion value might be worth keeping or improving.

The 4R Approach (Remove, Redirect, Refresh, Retain)

With your audit complete, it’s time to decide what to do with each piece of content. I use what I call the “4R Approach”:

1. Remove Content that should be deleted typically has:

• No significant traffic (under 10 visits per month)
• No quality backlinks
• No conversions
• No strategic relevance to your site
• Outdated information that could harm your reputation

When removing content, always check if it’s indexed in Google. If it is, you’ll need a plan to handle the URL (more on redirects below).

2. Redirect Use 301 redirects when:

• The content has valuable backlinks
• There’s a more relevant page on your site covering similar topics
• You’re consolidating multiple thin articles into one comprehensive piece

A proper 301 redirect passes most of the link equity from the old page to the new one. This preserves the SEO value you’ve built.

3. Refresh Content worth updating usually has:

• Decent backlinks but declining traffic
• Good conversion rates despite low traffic
• Strategic importance to your site’s topic cluster
• Outdated information that can be easily updated

Refreshing might involve adding new information, improving the writing, adding media, or restructuring the content to better match search intent.

4. Retain Keep content as-is when:

• It continues to perform well
• It’s evergreen and still accurate
• It serves an important purpose in your site structure
• It targets keywords you’re still focusing on

Even retained content should be reviewed periodically to ensure it remains relevant.

Priority Matrix Development

With limited time and resources, you need to know which content to tackle first. A priority matrix helps you make these decisions.

I recommend creating a 2×2 matrix based on effort required and potential impact:

1. High Impact, Low Effort: These are your “quick wins” – tackle these first
   • Example: Adding internal links to an existing high-quality page
   • Example: Redirecting low-traffic pages with good backlinks
2. High Impact, High Effort: These are your “major projects” – plan these carefully
   • Example: Completely refreshing a key page that’s losing rankings
   • Example: Consolidating multiple related articles into one comprehensive guide
3. Low Impact, Low Effort: These are your “fill-in tasks” – do when time allows
   • Example: Fixing minor formatting issues
   • Example: Updating publication dates on refreshed content
4. Low Impact, High Effort: These are your “time wasters” – avoid or reconsider
   • Example: Rewriting content that has no strategic value
   • Example: Creating complex graphics for low-traffic pages

When evaluating cost versus benefit of content decisions, consider these factors:

• Traffic value: How much would this traffic cost through paid channels?
• Backlink replacement cost: How much would it cost to build similar backlinks?
• Content creation cost: What would it cost to recreate this content from scratch?
• Opportunity cost: What else could you be working on instead?

For example, if a page has 10 quality backlinks but no traffic, deleting it might seem logical. However, if those backlinks would cost $2,000 to replace, a better approach might be to refresh the content or redirect the page.

The goal of this framework isn’t to provide a one-size-fits-all answer, but to help you make informed decisions based on data rather than gut feelings. In my experience, this methodical approach leads to better outcomes and more efficient use of resources.

Implementation Best Practices

When it comes to removing low-performing content from your website, having a solid plan is crucial. In my 19 years working with websites of all sizes, I’ve seen content pruning projects go wonderfully right—and terribly wrong. The difference often comes down to following these implementation best practices.

Safe Removal Processes

Before you start deleting content, you need a careful approach. Think of content pruning like gardening—cut too much too quickly, and you might damage the whole plant.

Start with a test batch

Always begin with a small test group of pages. This lets you see how removal affects your site without risking everything at once.

1. Select 5-10 low-performing pages that represent different content types
2. Document their current metrics (traffic, rankings, backlinks)
3. Implement your chosen strategy (deletion, redirection, or improvement)
4. Wait 2-4 weeks to observe results
5. Analyze the impact before proceeding with larger batches

Create a staging environment

A staging environment is a private copy of your website where you can test changes before making them live. This is especially important for larger websites.

Testing in staging helps you:
- Identify technical issues before they affect real users
- Check if redirects work properly
- Ensure internal links don't break
- Verify that site structure remains intact

I once worked with an e-commerce client who skipped the staging test and deleted 200+ product pages at once. They immediately lost 30% of their organic traffic because they accidentally removed some high-performing pages. A proper staging test would have prevented this costly mistake.

Document everything

Keep detailed records of what you’re removing and why. Create a spreadsheet that tracks:

Column	Description
URL	Full page address
Action	Delete, redirect, improve, or consolidate
Reason	Low traffic, outdated, duplicate, etc.
Metrics before removal	Traffic, rankings, conversions
Redirect destination (if applicable)	New URL where traffic should go
Implementation date	When changes were made

This documentation serves as your safety net if something goes wrong and helps you analyze results later.

Monitoring Post-Removal Performance

After pruning content, careful monitoring is essential to understand the impact and make adjustments if needed.

Key metrics to track

Track these metrics weekly for at least 2-3 months after content pruning:

• Organic traffic: Look for changes in overall site traffic and landing page performance
• Keyword rankings: Monitor positions for your target keywords
• Crawl stats: Check Google Search Console for crawl frequency changes
• Indexation: Track how many pages remain in Google’s index
• Conversion rates: Watch for changes in user behavior and goal completions
• Page speed: Content removal often improves site speed, which can boost rankings

Create custom reports

Set up custom reports in Google Analytics or your preferred analytics tool to easily monitor these metrics. I recommend creating a dashboard that compares:

1. Pre-pruning performance (30 days before)
2. Transition period (first 30 days after)
3. Post-pruning performance (30-90 days after)

This three-period comparison helps you see both immediate effects and longer-term trends.

Regular search console checks

Google Search Console provides valuable insights after content pruning:

• Check the “Coverage” report for crawl errors
• Monitor the “Removals” section if you used the URL removal tool
• Review the “Links” report to ensure valuable backlinks weren’t lost
• Watch for messages about significant changes to your site

I recommend scheduling weekly reviews of these reports for the first month, then bi-weekly for the next two months.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Even experienced SEOs make mistakes during content pruning. Here are the most common pitfalls and how to avoid them.

Orphaned internal links

When you remove pages, you might create “orphaned” internal links—links pointing to pages that no longer exist. These create poor user experiences and waste crawl budget.

To handle internal links effectively:

1. Run a link audit: Use tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to identify all internal links pointing to pages you plan to remove
2. Update important links: For links from high-traffic pages, update them to point to relevant alternatives
3. Set up proper redirects: Ensure 301 redirects are in place for all removed pages
4. Monitor 404 errors: Check Search Console regularly for “not found” errors and fix them promptly

Losing valuable backlinks

One of the biggest risks in content pruning is losing backlinks from other websites. Even low-traffic pages might have quality backlinks you don’t want to lose.

Before removing any page:

• Check its backlink profile using tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or Semrush
• For pages with quality backlinks, consider improving rather than removing
• If removal is necessary, set up proper 301 redirects to relevant pages
• Monitor your backlink profile after pruning to catch any significant losses

Moving too fast

Content pruning should be methodical, not rushed. I’ve seen websites lose 50%+ of their traffic by removing too much content at once.

A safer approach is:

• Spread removals over several weeks or months
• Start with the lowest-performing content first
• Wait to see results before moving to the next batch
• Pause if you notice negative trends in traffic or rankings

Ignoring seasonality

A range of factors could be causing your content to not perform as well as expected. Before taking out seasonal content, review how it performed in time frames related to when the content went up.

A client almost got rid of all the pages they created for ‘Valentine’s Day gift’ in June because they received no traffic. We looked at their year over year data and found that those pages contributed 40% of Q1 revenue.

Implementing removal of underperforming content and other site maintenance, will not harm the health and performance of your site. Content pruning should be an ongoing effort, not a one time thing, With regular audits and removals, you will keep your site centrally focused, relevant, and performing its best.

Final Words

It is not a straightforward yes or no answer to remove for underperforming content, As we’ve seen, context matters tremendously. What works for one website might not work for another.

In almost 19 years of digital marketing experience, I have learned that audience monitoring of content should be continuous and not just a one time clean up. Websites I’ve worked with that have the most success keep to a regular schedule of content audit; we use data to decide what to keep, update, or remove.

Before deleting any content, remember to check these key factors:

• Is it getting any traffic at all?
• Does it serve an important purpose beyond SEO?
• Could it be improved rather than removed?
• What happens to internal links if you remove it?
• Have you considered redirecting instead of deleting?

don’t delete the Content so fast only because it’s doesn’t rank well on google, sometimes it does need so improvement and time to perform well so be patient and wait.

i will advise you to do a list of points that’s guide you if the content you was written is compatible with your reader is needs or not , that’s will help you so much.

Written By :
Mohamed Ezz
Founder & CEO – MPG ONE