If you’re looking for ways to improve the SEO of your website, content pruning is an effective method to consider.
Content pruning is all about removing any unnecessary content from your website, which can help your website rank higher in search engine results and can also improve user experience.
In this article, you will learn how to do content pruning for SEO, from identifying what needs to be pruned to taking steps to ensure that it’s done correctly. Keep reading to find out more.
🔍 What is Content Pruning?
🔍 What is Content Pruning?
Content pruning involves a thorough review of all content on a website to identify any content that could be seen as irrelevant or low quality from the perspective of search engine algorithms. Once identified, content pruning involves removing those low-quality pages from the website or replacing them with better content.
A part of regular website maintenance is making sure that all of the content on the website is up-to-date and relevant to the website’s goals. This can help ensure that a website has content that is useful to its visitors and provides value to users who arrive from search engines.
By removing low-quality or outdated content, websites can see improved search visibility for their highest-value, highest-converting web pages.
📈 Why Remove Content From My Website?
📈 Why Remove Content From My Website?
Content production takes time and resources. So you may be wondering: Why remove content from my website after all the work it took to create it?
Although it may feel counterintuitive to your content strategy, content pruning can actually have major benefits to your search engine performance. This is even more true for websites that have a robust SEO content strategy and are publishing new web pages on a regular basis.
Some of those benefits include:
Improve a website’s visibility by allowing search engines to index your best and highest-converting web pages
Ensure visitors are presented with the most up-to-date information
Provide higher-quality content and a better user experience
Prevent visitors from seeing any low-quality pages
Ensure your crawl budget is spent on rank-worthy content
Any content that doesn’t pull its weight in either traffic or conversions isn’t bringing value to your business.
By taking the time to regularly prune their content, content managers can ensure that their website is performing at its best.
🧹 What Makes a Web Page Prunable?
🧹 What Makes a Web Page Prunable?
Low-Quality
Bad content can negatively impact rankings — such as duplicate, thin, or low-value pages.
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content is similar or identical content that confuses search engines. Use canonical tags when necessary.
Thin Content
Thin content offers little value. Combine or redirect these pages to more comprehensive ones.
Outdated Content
Content becomes outdated over time. Remove or update it to maintain relevance.
Under-performing Content
Pages without traffic, conversions, or ranking value should be improved or removed.
🧭 How to Find Pages for Content Pruning
🧭 How to Find Pages for Content Pruning
Use the Page Pruning tool in your dashboard.
Path: Site Auditor > Page Pruning
The tool shows pages eligible for pruning based on:
Low organic impressions
Low clicks
Indexability
Total ranking keywords
Average position
Content quality/scores
A page appearing here means it may be eligible — not that it must be deleted.
⚙️ Next Steps for Page Pruning
⚙️ Next Steps for Page Pruning
Step 1: Improve the Content on the Page
Step 1: Improve the Content on the Page
Use the Boostable tab in the Page Pruning tool to identify pages that need a content score boost.
Use Content Genius or On-page Audit Tool to strengthen and optimize your content.
Step 2: Update the Content to Be More Evergreen
Step 2: Update the Content to Be More Evergreen
Update seasonal or trend-based content to make it evergreen and relevant. Review and refresh content every 1–2 years.
Step 3: Build Backlinks to the Page
Step 3: Build Backlinks to the Page
If your content scores are high but rankings lag, use the Backlink Research Tool to assess link equity and consider a link-building campaign.
Step 4: Reoptimize the Page for a Different Keyword
Step 4: Reoptimize the Page for a Different Keyword
If the keyword is too competitive, choose one closer to your Domain Authority and update metadata, copy, and headings accordingly.
Step 5: Redirect the Page to a More High-Quality One
Step 5: Redirect the Page to a More High-Quality One
Fix keyword cannibalization by adding a 301 redirect from the weaker page to the better-performing one.
Step 6: Combine Thin Content into a More Comprehensive Resource
Step 6: Combine Thin Content into a More Comprehensive Resource
Merge related thin pages into a longer, more complete resource that satisfies broader search intent.
Step 7: Consider Removing the Page Entirely
Step 7: Consider Removing the Page Entirely
If none of the above solutions improve results, and the content doesn’t serve business goals — remove it.
✅ Conclusion
Making content pruning a regular part of your website maintenance is a good habit — especially for websites with a robust SEO strategy.