There’s an old expression about “killing your darlings” when it comes to writing, whether they be sentences, ideas, or, in some cases, entire pieces of content.
While whoever first said that was likely referring to frilly sentences, it’s equally true regarding blog content as it pertains to SEO. If you or your business have a blog, low-quality content that’s performing poorly is likely doing more harm than good. As such, you need to consider getting rid of it through a process known as content pruning.
So, while it can be hard to say goodbye, we’re here to walk you through several content pruning benefits to show you why it’s necessary!
What is Content Pruning?
Think about content pruning like you’re getting your hair trimmed. You’re not buzzing it all; you’re hoping to get rid of those pesky split ends.
Low-performing blogs are the split ends in your content strategy. We’re talking about the kinds of pages that aren’t getting traffic, aren’t generating conversions, or have since been overshadowed by similar yet better content in your library.
While we don’t know what kind of hair it likes, we do know that Google prefers content that is fresh, unique, and features up-to-date information. It sees this kind of content as providing value to readers and thus will allow it to succeed within its algorithm.
Content Pruning Benefits
There are several content pruning benefits you need to consider when deciding whether or not to take out the metaphorical snippers. Two big ones are:
Improved Content Organization
If you’ll allow us to use another metaphor, you can think of your library of blog content like books on a shelf. If you collect a lot of books, you probably want them to look nice and be well-organized on your shelf. Blog posts are no different.
Your blog is a shelf, and the books are your posts. You want a nice, curated library of high-quality content that readers (and prospective customers) can easily browse. This will also ensure that your link authority is flowing to pages that aren’t dead ends.
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Avoiding Content Cannibalization
Content pruning benefits also extend to helping avoid “content cannibalization”, a situation where Google and other search engines can’t tell two of your posts apart because they’re too similar and competing for the same keywords.
Here’s a little content pruning case study. Imagine you have two blogs on your site, both about how to SEO-optimize TikTok videos. One was written a few years ago when TikTok first launched, while the other is much more recent. You’d be wise to prune the old one, perhaps consolidating its best content into the newer one (more on that soon).
How to Prune Your Content
Now that you understand at least two main content pruning benefits, let’s go through the three steps of the content pruning process!
- Create a Content Inventory
Step one is creating a list of your content in a spreadsheet. You’ll want to supplement it with data you pull from Google Analytics, Google Search Console, or another web analytics tool. You also should use SEO tools to help pull backlink data.
For each blog post or piece of content, you should also indicate:
- Its goal (i.e. thought leadership, conversions, etc.)
- Who is its target audience
- What keywords/queries it should be ranking for
- Perform a Content Audit
To really experience the content pruning benefits we outlined, you need to perform what’s known as a content audit. At this stage, you’ll be assessing the performance of the content you laid out in your inventory in a variety of ways.
When auditing your content, you should score:
- Visits and conversions over the last year
- The number of external or internal links
- Its social performance over the last year
- The accuracy and timeliness of its information
- Whether it meets an acceptable word count
- If it might be cannibalizing existing content
- Prune or Save Your Content
When you identify pages that meet any of the following, it’s usually a good sign you need to prune content to improve SEO performance:
- Minimal or no organic traffic
- Very few internal and/or external links
- A lack of social media engagement
- Inaccurate or outdated information
- Thin or duplicate content
However, before you press the delete button, you should consider whether this piece of content can be repurposed or updated—time and resources were devoted to creating it in the first place, after all. In some cases, sourcing some new information, adding several quality links, or perhaps a new section or two can work wonders.
If not, it’s probably time to kiss your low-performing content goodbye!
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Create Better Content With The Influence Agency
So, what is content pruning for SEO? Well, as you’ve learned, it’s weeding out the underperforming content that’s holding you back. While everyone has to prune some outdated content from time to time, we can help you make it a less common occurrence.
The Influence Agency makes content meant to last. By having us create high-value content that’s well-researched and expertly optimized the first time, you get to reap the content-pruning benefits we mentioned without having to delete old posts.
What are you waiting for? Contact us today for a content marketing strategy that works!