+27 votes
by (1.3k points)
I've asked this question before and I'm always curious how opinions change. Riddle me this - If you have a website with 1000 pages, but 500 of them are blog articles that get no traffic, what do you do with those articles? Things to note: Google likes big websites The content isn't bad but it isn't optimized and it has no links The content has not been used to internally link to money pages properly Potential Options: Set to no index Redirect them Optimize the content Republish the content 404 the content Ignore the issue I'm personally leaning towards redirecting some, deleting some, and then re-publishing others.  
I've asked this question before and I'm always curious how opinions change.

23 Answers

+7 votes
by (2k points)
 
Best answer
How about someone just answers what this person is asking rather than proposing ten other things they think @supranational875 should do.  
by (4.8k points)
@tapster13460 welcome to just about every answer in an SEO group. fun isn't it?  
by (640 points)
@hora77577 it depends  
+20 votes
by (10.9k points)
Why aren’t they getting any traffic. Best to address the cause first before you start thinking about a solution
by (1.3k points)
Because why would you read a random article with no search viability? These articles are reflections from staff, anecdotal stories, or just info pieces that aren't optimized and are buried at page 10 of the blog.  
by (1k points)
I’d cull the content that serves no purpose. Merge posts with value and republish them. Content audit should be done first tho
by (10.9k points)
@supranational875 pagination within the blog means nothing in terms of where a page might display in the serps. Have you taken into account conversions? Are these pages doing anything aside from just "ranking"? Ive seen content get pulled because it wasnt getting much traffic, only to find those pages were generating revenue. Having said that, you'll probably have to do a combination of things. 1. Delete. 2. Consolidate/combine 3. Improve
+11 votes
by (680 points)
Why don't you try and optimize them? That way you can get them to rank. Or, if you can add few articles together to make one article.  
by (1.3k points)
I have a TON of stuff I could do that have a more direct impact on SEO improvement and growth and it would take valuable budget and time to improve something that is just. meh. Good question though.  
by (2k points)
@creamcolored because not everything needs to be optimized if it’s garbage content. I personally think this is a great question the author posed and I am confused why no one can answer it without some last minute revival for garbage content. Not everything that is garbage needs to be revived.  
by (2k points)
@creamcolored I have old things on my blog like this. I don’t want to optimize them. I don’t want to rank them. I don’t want to revive them. I just want to delete it
+16 votes
by (2.7k points)
I would optimize any that could rank AND be good internal link posts.  
+12 votes
by (590 points)
I'd try and analyse what pieces cover unique topics. If 10 different staff members are talking about the same topic, I'd try merge them. Performance is good to look at, but I'd also look at the topics. How they're performing would just help me determine how to set the primary article on a topic when merging multiple together. If there's actually nothing wrong with a piece thats only a unique topic, and it's not shitty content, there should be no need to delete.  
by (590 points)
Then they could be prioritised, with the key ones being optimised & republished.  
+2 votes
by (330 points)
Republish into one.,  
+18 votes
by (1.2k points)
Google likes big sites full of valuable content. You can tell that’s not the case here as they’re not rewarding much of the content with any traffic.  
+7 votes
by (3.5k points)
Bro just sell a bunch of niche edits on the articles, boom, profit
by (560 points)
Definitely a good strategy if it’s a strong site. Hit me up and show me the site and I could sell some on it for you.  
+18 votes
by (1.3k points)
Haha, I will keep you in mind, but I won't be doing it for this site.  
+21 votes
by (1.4k points)
Prune it right out of there. Go on a full-on ruthless deleting spree. I've been doing it with old / expired / thin content and the results are actually pretty positive. So much so, for this type of content being published on my sites I now set review dates to either update or delete. I prefer 410 over just deleting it and letting it 404, it drops out of the index so much faster. It also often leads to a bump in impressions and clicks just days later. I've seen little benefit in general of 301ing something with absolutely no traffic or relevance, to something else on the site. Google likes big websites but Google also likes relevant and concise websites. An article for article's sake with thin content) certainly doesn't help your site, who even knows if it could be harming it.  
+16 votes
by (480 points)
Make better contents, improve posts with images, vidoes etc. You blog posts not getting its not their fault but if you have no plan to optimize leave them there rather then creating redirected URLs.  
0 votes
by (950 points)
You answered your own question my friend - Prune out bad irrelevant content (check to make sure it's not ranking first) - Combine and redirect anything that is on the same subject that could be valuable to the user - Spiff up what's remaining and optimize it and link it to appropriate pages
+24 votes
by (1.1k points)
Combine blogs into massive articles
+15 votes
by (21.6k points)
There's probably a ton of opportunity to improve the internal linking. Blogs kind of slow down as you add more content to them. It just so happens I have a post about this very topic scheduled for the SEO Theory blog tomorrow.  
+9 votes
by (1k points)
Re optimize your blog posts and interlink it to your money pages
+21 votes
by (2.5k points)
I just shot a video about this very topic as to how to repurpose and supercharge that content. optimize and distribute! —  
https://vimeo.com/410354014
+21 votes
by (3.7k points)
If no traffic or links, but the content serves a purpose for visitors (builds trust, establishs credibility/authority), set to noindex so visitors can still view the page, but Google won't waste any crawl budget or space in its index. If no traffic or links and the content doesn't really serve any purpose for visitors, delete it. If no traffic, but links point to the page and the content serves a purpose for visitors, optimize it. If no traffic and the content does not serve a purpose for visitors, but links point to the page, redirect to a similar page. If traffic and links, but the content does not serve a purpose for visitors, redirect to a similar page. If traffic, links, and the content does serve a purpose for visitors, optimize it.  
+10 votes
by (840 points)
Whatever the answer you're looking for won't applying to all of those posts. I'd go through them once and delete the most useless ones that I wouldn't wanna show up on my website. Then with the rest, I'd merge, optimize, and internal link them. Wait for for a few months, see the traffic flow and then internal link to my money pages.  
+9 votes
by (4.2k points)
First you need to establish why they get no traffic? Useless? Redundant? Boring? Something else? Once you have that figured out, it's a lot easier to figure out what to do with them - and actually be able to come up with the right answer.  
+20 votes
by (14.3k points)
You know exactly what to do :) or, at least, is exactly what I'd do. side note: I'd check first for the not indexed pages, and start with those
+11 votes
by (2.1k points)
This might have something to do with it: >>>isn't optimized and it has no links Maybe try focusing on that before throwing out the pages?  
+20 votes
by (740 points)
Is there a “best” way to delete posts you don’t care about?  
+5 votes
by (260 points)
I would keep the ones that you can interlink to money pages and cull ther est
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