Content Pruning: How to decorate the old content, make SEO overall better.

Making a new content almost dead ... But why is the website not growing up? Symptoms that say that the website must "Cut pruning" urgently!

Have you ever felt like this? Your team is diligent in creating new content every week. Quality articles are beautiful, but why the overall traffic of the website is still "calm", important keywords. Didn't move anywhere Like adding water to the tank that cannot be seen ... If you are encountering this problem You didn't face it alone. And the good news is "criminals" may not be a new content you just made, but it is a "old content" that has been forgotten and is holding back on your website quietly. It's time for us to get to know "Cutting branches" or Content Pruning, your backyard care art (website) to grow again!

[Prompt for illustrations: Comparison graphics between the dense garden With a dead branch of death With a garden that was trimmed beautifully, airy, and the tree is blooming With a message that "The web ... how good the content is not growing."]

Why the web is even more old? Open the reason that the old content holds your website.

Many people believe that "The more content is better with SEO", which used to be a truth in one era, but for the current Google (and the future) that focuses on quality than quantity (Quality over quantity). Also known as "Content Bloat", there are more disadvantages than the good causes. There are 2-3 main causes.

1. Wasted Crawl Budget: Imagine that Googlebot (the program that Google sent to store information) is a postman with a limited time each day. If your village (website) has too many abandoned houses (non -quality content), he must waste time with those abandoned houses. Until there may not be enough time to send important letters at new homes (Good content). As a result, the new content is good, the index is slow or not collected at all.

2. Topical Authority Dilution: If you want to be an expert on "coffee" but has low quality articles, duplicate data, or short articles. Regarding all the coffee, it will make Google confused and reduce your expertise. Fight with a "divine" article, just a few articles. Having a lot of weak content Will divide the overall quality of the entire website

3. Poor User Experience: Have you ever click to find the old information collected since 5 years ago? Or found a webpage with only 2 paragraphs? These experiences create bad feelings for users. And send a negative signal (such as a high bounce rate) back to Google, which affects the credibility (EEAT) and the ranking of the website directly.

[Prompt for illustrations: Infographic images are simple. Googlebot is getting lost in the maze that is full of webpages "Outdaated" and "Low Quality", not to reach the "High Quality" web page in the middle].

Release the web, not deal ... The disaster that is waiting for the destination

Ignoring old content that is not effective Is like leaving the dead branches on the tree Not only looks beautiful But it still has a deeper impact than expected If left What will follow is:

• Ranking of good content Fell as well: many low quality content will go to "grass" the overall score of the website Make good articles That you intend to do Cannot be ranked well as it should be Because it is seen as part of the website that is not quality
• Lost enormous business opportunities: users who encounter old information, 404 not found, or useless duties They will leave immediately and may not come back again. You will lose the whole traffic, reliable, and the opportunity to change them into customers.
• Keyword cannibalization: There are many articles that talk about similar matters (such as "Dedrip coffee" and "coffee drip procedures") will cause Google to be confused about which page should be ranked. In the end, there is no page to be ranked well at all.
• The brand looks unreliable: a website that is full of outdated information and does not work. Reflecting ignorance and lack of professionalism Destroy the trust that customers have to your brand

Letting the web is not just about beauty. But it is a direct impact on your SEO and your business goals.

[Prompt for illustrations: The graph showing the SEO Traffic graph gradually plummeted with a small icon, such as the frown of the user, spider (Googlebot symbol), walk away, and cracks. (Trust symbol) assembled]

The solution is here! The art of "pruning branches", content and correct starting methods

The solution of this problem is simple but very powerful, that is "Content Pruning" or "Cutting of content". It is the process of checking and evaluating every piece of content on your website systematically. And decided how to deal with it In order to leave, but the content is strong and really quality. In general, we will divide the content management into 4 main guidelines.

• Update/Improve): For potential content (such as a good topic, there are still people searching, there are some traffic but not many), but the information may be old. Or the content is not deep enough. We will "overhaul". It's new to be fresh and more complete.
• Total (Consolidate/Merge): For many articles The pieces that speak the same or too similar We will bring the best content of each article together as "The ultimate article" (Ultimate Guide), only one article and then redirect the old article to this new article.
• Cut (Prune/Delete): For true useful content, such as no traffic at all, no backlink, the topic is not related to the business, or is the news that has expired for a long time . So as not to create a page 404
• Keep it (keep): For high quality content that has already done its job well Then don't have to do anything with it

And where to start? The answer is starting from "Content Audit" or all content checking. You must mainly rely on information. Not feeling The important tool you need is Google Analytics 4 to see the top traffic and Google Search Console to see the keyword and Performance data. The beginning of this data is the most important starting point. For anyone who wants to know where the traffic that has been seen from the GA4 usage manual for the E-Commerce business will help you see a lot more clear.

[Prompt for illustrations: INFOGRAPHIC shows 4 main icons: 1. Update 2. The icon that connects (Consolidate) 3. Pim icon (PRUNE) 4. Keep icon with short description Of each action]

Real case: from the forgotten website To the website to make money with content pruning

In order to be clearer I would like to give an example of the "Bake Me Happy" website, an online bakery that has accumulated more than 800 articles over the past 7 years.

Problems encountered: Even though the new dessert recipes are produced, the traffic of the web has been back for 2 years. The keyword "teaching the cake" that used to be on the first page dropped to three old articles of over 90%.

The process of "pruning": The team decided to do a big content Audit. They found that there are short articles about "how to make a brownie" up to 15 articles! And there are more than 200 promotional articles that have expired

1. PRUNE: They delete the old promotion and unrelated articles. 250 articles and 301 Redirect to the related category page.
2. Consolidate: All 15 brownies articles are combined as the ultimate article. "The 5 brownies manual is as delicious as the strongest Chef" in the URL. The remaining Redirect 14 URL here.
3. UPDATE: Article about the basics of making 100 more desserts that have some traffic. It has been renovated, adding more beautiful videos and pictures.

Amazing results: Only 4 months after completing content pruning, the Organic Traffic of the "Bake Me Happy" website up to 75%! The ultimate brownie article attached to the Top 3 in the main keywords, and most importantly, Googlebot to collect new dessert recipes. Clearly faster than before This is the power to manage the old content correctly.

[Prompt for illustrations: The Before & After of the "Bake Me Happy" website. The left is a overgrown website. There are a lot of articles, but it doesn't look powerful. On the right is a website that looks more clean. There are interesting articles and traffic graphs that are rising clearly].

What do you want to do? Checklist 5 steps to join hands to make content pruning

Now you want to do it on your own website, right? Try to follow this 5 checklist. Not as complicated as you think

Step 1: All of your URL list came out.
Use tools like Screaming Frog or pull from your Sitemap to list all the URLs of the article on Google Sheets or Excel.

Step 2: Collecting important information (Metrics)
in the table that you list URL to add columns for these data. По Each URL:
- Pageviews (90 days from Google Analytics 4)
- Clicks & Impressment (90 days from Google Search Console)
- Backlinks (from AREFS or AREREFS or SEMRUSH)
- Word Count (use Screaming Frog to help count)

Step 3: Analyze and decide
It's time to be a judge! Add the "Action" column and then put the decision (keep, update, consolidate, prune) into each URL using simple criteria such as:

- Pageviews = 0 , clicks = 0, backlinks = 0
- update : Pageviews/clicks, but still interesting. Which is similar and the keyword is ranked similar Understanding the Topic Clusters and Pillar Pages will help you to join the content more efficiently.
- KEEP: There is a good traffic and Performance.

Step 4: Be careful "cutting"
- for Prune: Delete that page. Then go to the backyard system of your website to set the 301 Redirect from the URL that has been deleted to the closest duties (such as the Category or the main article involved)
- For Consolidate: Choose the best URL as the main page. Bring the content from the remaining duties and the new Kala. Then remove the remaining face and do 301 Redirect to the newly created main page
. - For update: New hand writing, add information, change images, add an internal link to other articles. And don't forget to change the date "Last Updated" to tell Google that this article is fresh

Step 5: Notify Google to know
after the management, go to the Google Search Console and do your submit sitemap again to invite Googlebot to explore the new version of the new version of your website! For those who really want in -depth information, Log file analysis will show how often Googlebot comes to your website after the change.

[Prompt for illustrations: Large checklist image showing 5 main steps (List URLS, Gather Metrics, Analyze, Execute, Inform Google) with easy -to -understand icons]

Questions that people tend to suspect (FAQ) about Content Pruning

Q1: Delete the content. Will the rank fall? Very scared!
A: If deleted and let it become 404 pages (Not Found), definitely fall! But if you do 301 Redirect correctly, it will not have a disadvantage. Redirect is to tell Google, "This page is not here. But all of its power and value Has been moved to this new URL instead. "Which is the maintenance of what is called Link Equity.

Q2: How frequent content pruning should be done?
A: No need to do it every month. For medium to large websites (There are hundreds to thousands of articles). It is recommended to make a project, 1 time a year or every 18 months to "make a big cleaning" for the website.

Q3: There is no traffic content but has a backlink from a good website, should it be deleted?
A: Do not delete! Backlink is a very valuable asset. This is the perfect option for "Update". You overhaul the content on that page. Making it the best as well as having a good backlink, pointing in, or another option is to "Consolidate" by combined with other stronger articles and 301 Redirect from URL with Backlink to that new article. To pass on the power of Backlink

Q4: No expensive SEO tools. Can you make content pruning?
A: Of course! You can mainly use the Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console. Which provides enough powerful information for starting Although there is no information that is as accurate as a tool, only the data of traffic and Performance from Google helps you to make a basic decision very well.

[Prompt for illustrations: Large Spech Bubble box icon with the letter "Q&A" in the middle and has a small icon. Instead of various questions surrounded]

It's time to change the web. To be a money making website!

At this point, I believe that you can see that Content Pruning is not just "deleting" but a "strategy" to control the quality of all websites. It was to cut off the dead branches. So that all the nutrients are sent to feed strong branches and ready to bloom for us Having less content but higher quality It is better than having many content but full of duties.

Investment is effective with the Content Pruning. Today is to lay a strong foundation for SEO in the long run. It will help new content. That you intend to do in the future Able to fully show its potential without the old "luggage" to clutter anymore

Don't wait! Try to start simply with the oldest exploration of the oldest articles and the worst performance on your website first. And you will be surprised by the hidden improvement opportunities. It's time to change your website into a powerful marketing tool as it should be!

If the big website inspection and improvement seems to be complicated and time Our team of experts are ready to help you! Allow Vision X Brain to take care and "trim" your website to be strong and ready to rank again with Website Renovation service . We can consult us today!

[Prompt for illustrations: The final image is inspired. Is a picture of a marketer standing proudly smiling in front of the computer screen that shows the SEO graph with a call to action message, "Start Pruning Today!"]

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