Edit Run a content audit and prune content

Editing: Run a content audit and prune content

<p>
    Running a content audit and pruning outdated or underperforming content is essential for maintaining a high-quality, SEO-friendly website. As your site grows, some pages may lose value, hurt user experience, or waste crawl budget. This guide provides a strategic, step-by-step approach to auditing and trimming content to boost rankings, engagement, and overall website health.
  </p>

<h2>Why Content Audits Matter</h2>
  <ul>
    <li>Improve crawl efficiency and site speed</li>
    <li>Remove low-quality or duplicate content</li>
    <li>Consolidate pages targeting the same keyword</li>
    <li>Enhance topical authority and user experience</li>
    <li>Recover from Google algorithm updates targeting thin or spammy content</li>
  </ul>

<div class="box">
    <strong>Strategic Tip:</strong> Content pruning is not about deleting—it’s about improving content quality and relevance. Sometimes, merging or redirecting is better than outright deletion.
  </div>

<h2>Step-by-Step: How to Run a Content Audit</h2>

<h3>1. Crawl Your Website</h3>
  <p>Use tools like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or Ahrefs to extract all URLs from your site. Export key data such as title tags, word count, traffic, status codes, and metadata.</p>

<h3>2. Pull Performance Metrics</h3>
  <ul>
    <li><strong>Google Search Console:</strong> Impressions, clicks, CTR, and ranking data</li>
    <li><strong>Google Analytics:</strong> Bounce rate, time on page, conversions</li>
    <li><strong>Ahrefs / Semrush:</strong> Backlinks, keyword rankings, traffic value</li>
  </ul>

<h3>3. Categorize Your Content</h3>
  <p>Segment your pages into categories like blog posts, service pages, product pages, landing pages, etc., to analyze performance by type.</p>

<h3>4. Assess Content Value</h3>
  <ul>
    <li>Is it getting organic traffic?</li>
    <li>Is it ranking for target keywords?</li>
    <li>Does it have backlinks?</li>
    <li>Is the content up to date and useful?</li>
    <li>Does it serve a unique purpose or audience need?</li>
  </ul>

<h2>Decide What to Do With Each Page</h2>
  <p>After collecting and evaluating the data, assign actions for each page:</p>
  <ul>
    <li><strong>Keep:</strong> High-performing or strategically important pages</li>
    <li><strong>Update:</strong> Outdated but valuable content—refresh stats, examples, internal links, and add missing sections</li>
    <li><strong>Merge:</strong> Combine multiple thin articles into a single comprehensive resource and 301 redirect old URLs</li>
    <li><strong>Delete:</strong> Useless, outdated, or duplicate content with no traffic or backlinks; return a 410 or 404 status or redirect appropriately</li>
  </ul>

<div class="box">
    <strong>Pro Tip:</strong> Prune carefully. If a page has backlinks or historical rankings, consider updating or redirecting instead of deleting to preserve link equity.
  </div>

<h2>Consolidate for Topical Authority</h2>
  <p>Google rewards topical depth. Instead of having 5 weak blog posts on related subtopics, combine them into one authoritative piece. This reduces keyword cannibalization and improves content comprehensiveness.</p>

<h2>Keep a Log of Changes</h2>
  <p>
    Document every change: URLs removed, merged, updated, or redirected. This helps with future audits and ensures you're not losing valuable traffic or link signals.
  </p>

<h2>Use Tools to Track Progress</h2>
  <ul>
    <li><strong>Google Analytics:</strong> Monitor organic traffic trends post-pruning</li>
    <li><strong>Google Search Console:</strong> Check crawl stats and coverage reports</li>
    <li><strong>SEO crawlers:</strong> Re-audit after pruning to detect errors or broken redirects</li>
  </ul>

<h2>Conclusion</h2>
  <p>
    A well-executed content audit is not about reducing the number of pages—it’s about improving quality and relevance. Pruning ineffective content can lead to better rankings, improved crawlability, and a stronger user experience. Make this a bi-annual or annual part of your SEO maintenance strategy.
  </p>

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