The How and Why of Content Pruning for SEO
A widespread misconception in the SEO industry is that you must post ‘x’ amount of content on your website on a regular basis in order to rank well over time. True, supplying your target audience with valuable, relevant, and optimised material that answers queries and gives insight will boost your visibility. The reverse impact can occur if the content being produced is inaccurate, badly designed, or lacks purpose.
It’s critical to check and assess the material on your website on a regular basis to ensure it’s functioning well and not becoming stale. There are likely to be pieces that no longer align with your brand, are no longer true in terms of their information, or content that isn’t helping your brand reach any specific goals, especially on major sites that have been producing new content for years.
This is known as content pruning, and this article will help you understand what it comprises, as well as why and when it is vital to prioritise pruning over developing content.
What exactly is content pruning?
The removal, consolidation, or re-optimisation of underperforming material across your website that provides no relevancy, value, or insight for your target audience is referred to as content pruning. It entails examining information for a variety of characteristics such as visibility, goals, accuracy, accessibility, and others. Content pruning should not be confused with culling, because it is not as simple as deleting large amounts of content and being brutal; this can cause far more harm than good.
Let’s look at the broad definition of ‘pruning’:
“trim (a tree, shrub, or bush) by removing dead or excessive branches or stems, particularly to promote development.”
The same is true for content pruning for SEO: it is about identifying content that is no longer serving a function and eliminating, re-optimizing, or consolidating it to ensure higher quality content across your site, and hence a long-term increase in visibility.
What is the significance of content trimming in SEO?
Keep up with Google algorithm adjustments.
Google’s algorithm improvements are always emphasising information’s quality, accuracy, and authority. In addition, their ranking algorithms are getting significantly more perceptive about what constitutes quality material. The days of exploiting scraped, keyword-heavy content to rank for specific keywords are long gone.
Material pruning enables you to find any older pieces of content that do not align with or violate Google’s quality rules, allowing you to adjust or eliminate this content to improve the overall quality and authority of your website’s content. Poor, scraped material or blackhat practises that you may have employed in the past may have gone unnoticed by you, but they will not be ignored by Google and may impact your site’s visibility.
Achieve certain targets more effectively
Content published on your website should be consistent with your brand’s long-term objectives. Articles and landing pages can be used to build backlinks, convert visitors, solicit inquiries, or increase traffic and brand awareness. With sites that contain a large amount of content, there is a good probability that not all pages will be fit for purpose over time, or that not all of your pages will have any purpose at all.
The purpose of content pruning is to find old or even recent information that does not correspond with your business goals and then alter, remove, noindex, or redirect it to more relevant, better-optimized content. It is the process of determining the objective of each page on your site, whether the page is optimised to achieve that aim, and the page’s performance thus far.
For example, if the goal of a page was to produce backlinks but your digital PR effort failed, consider why and whether the page can be revised, further optimised, and outreached again. Another example might be a page with insufficient material. With a page on a related topic, the current material can be reinforced or consolidated. You can reap tremendous benefits by tailoring your content to its intended purpose.
Look for old content
Content decay occurs when older pieces of content lose their relevance or become erroneous over time. Content pruning entails reviewing potentially stale content like this on a regular basis to ensure your website is providing up-to-date, factually accurate advice, whether you decide to update the page, redirect it to a more relevant page on your site, noindex it to keep crawlers away, or delete it entirely and display a 404.
Determine competing content
Internal competition is common, especially if your brand or the website you’re working on is vast, such as those with large content libraries. This is known as content cannibalization, and it occurs when numerous pages on a website compete for the same keyword or keywords. Most of the time, it is inadvertent and goes unnoticed, but it has the potential to drastically reduce the visibility and success of all competing pages. Content pruning allows you to identify instances of cannibalisation and devise a plan of action to address them. For example, you may decide to combine two pages on one URL with improved exposure in the goal of generating a larger, more effective, and more valuable page.
So What do you do?
Now that we’ve established what content pruning is and why it can be extremely useful and effective for SEO, let’s get into the specifics of how to implement it.
Design your dashboard
To begin, you’ll need to collect a wealth of relevant data in a spreadsheet to give yourself the best chance of evaluating your content and providing effective recommendations. The simplest way to achieve this is to crawl your site with a tool like Screaming Frog to collect all of the essential data. You can also export a list of all indexed URLs from Google Search Console.
I recommend importing a full year’s worth of data into your dashboard to get a comprehensive picture of how your pages are performing.
Creating a dashboard with all of the metrics you intend to analyse might be tedious and time-consuming.
Here’s a list of the data we recommend entering into a spreadsheet, as well as the tools you can use to do so:
Screaming Frog
If your site has fewer than 500 URLs, you can crawl it completely utilising Screaming Frog’s free SEO spider tool. You can obtain the following information from this point:
URL index
Metadata (alternatively, use an IMPORT XML formula to pull meta titles and descriptions into a Google Sheet, such as =IMPORTXML(“URL”,”/title”))
Heading structures and H1s
the number of words
Instances of duplicate content
Analytics by Google
The greatest places to find your data are within Google’s own tools. You can export the following data from Analytics along with your URLs:
Organic traffic, which includes Organic Users and Sessions
Engagement Time vs. Bounce Rate (GA3) (GA4). Using this data, you may discover pages where users leave almost instantly or pages where they stay a long period. However, don’t rely solely on these indicators; someone may leave a page if they rapidly found what they were seeking for.
Organic Conversions, Revenue (if relevant), and/or Objectives To prune your content, you must collect data that is relevant to your business strategy and overall goals. E-commerce companies, for example, may wish to track how many visitors purchase after viewing a given page of content, whilst other sites may be interested in how many people submit an enquiry or perform another specific action on the site.
Google Search Console
The Search Console is handy for checking which pages are indexable and exporting a list of all internal and external links on the site.
Rank tracking software
Before recommending a course of action for SEO, it’s also necessary to obtain a broader understanding of how your pages rank. I propose using Ahrefs, SEMRush, or another similar tool that allows you to export a list of URLs and their top-ranking keywords for this purpose.
These tools are also valuable for determining whether pages have backlinks leading to them and the authority of these links, as well as determining search intent and the various search engine results page (SERP) elements available for specific keywords. For example, you can quickly determine whether a SERP has the potential for a Featured Snippet, which your page could benefit from better optimising.
Establish your priorities
After that, you can begin pruning. If your site is quite extensive, for example, with thousands of posts published throughout time, you will need to determine your priorities. You might wish to focus on pages that were published before a specific year, have few to no backlinks, or earn less than a certain quantity of organic traffic or conversions each month. Again, this is depending on your business and the long-term goals of your site, whether that is better visibility in a specific sector or increased conversions.
Create a plan of action.
While reading your blogs, articles, news releases, or other forms of material on your website, you should keep a list of potential actions in mind.
This stage of the process allows you to vet your older content and create a list of planned actions, such as reoptimizing a page for different or additional keywords, consolidating an underperforming page with a stronger page on the same topic, leaving pages alone that are performing well or aren’t designed for SEO purposes, or simply scrapping pages that aren’t ranking or generating any traffic.
Among the possible actions are:
Consolidation (For example, if you identify that multiple pages on your site are competing to rank for the same keywords or find a page that is thin on content, you may want to consolidate these onto a stronger page.)
Update (For instance, if you discover that information, statistics, or facts used throughout your material are no longer relevant or correct and must be updated.)
Re-optimise (For example, if your page isn’t ranking for its target keywords, it could be because it doesn’t fit the proper search intent and should be optimised for an alternative set of keywords.)
Repurpose (For example, if you identify pages whose purpose does not fit the search intent. This might happen when a page has too little information or when readers are looking for a page with a lot of media, such as images or an infographic alongside copy.)
Remove (For example, if you discover a page with relatively little material or that is completely irrelevant and has no room for growth.) Always be cautious about eliminating potentially valuable content and make every effort to reroute people to related pages or show a bespoke and useful 404 page.)
Monitor (For example, if a page was recently released but isn’t currently ranking for your target keywords, create a note to monitor it in the future months and tweak as needed.)
There is no action. (The chances are that if you routinely publish high-quality, well-researched, and optimised content, a lot of it will be doing well as is and can be left alone to age and gain in visibility over time.)
Evaluate the results
Measuring the effects is arguably the most critical aspect of the content trimming process. If you evaluate and update a lot of your material but don’t prioritise assessing the effects of your efforts, you’ve completely defeated the point.
As you move through your material, ensure that everyone involved is aware of the state of specific pages and when new and enhanced information has been uploaded so that you can track the effects of these changes in the months to come. This allows you to readily determine your ROI for your time spent, whether it’s more organic traffic, conversions, or backlinks. Of course, keep in mind that your results may not be immediate; it may take time for Google to recrawl and rank your material correctly.
To sum up
Material pruning can be equally as beneficial as, if not more so than, developing fresh content for SEO. In addition to preventing your website from becoming overburdened with low-quality or repeated information, pruning allows you to be aware of the value each page provides and measure results accordingly.
Google is emphasising content quality and authority, so reviewing what you already have and making sure it is unique, valuable, helpful, and reliable will only benefit you.
A checklist of questions to ask yourself when reducing your content.
Use the checklist below to ensure you’re properly evaluating a variety of essential variables while pruning your material;
Intent to search for keywords Is your content still in line with the search intent of visitors if you have targeted keywords through it? Has the search intent for those terms shifted slightly over time, and if so, how can you adjust your content to better reflect this?
Page function. What does a piece of content serve? Is it intended to inform, educate, convert, or entertain?
Page objectives How will you assess the success of a piece of content? For example, if the goal is to convert or produce leads, you must ensure that conversion tracking is properly configured. If the goal is to entertain or attract attention, you may wish to track the number of backlinks obtained.
Internal rivalry. Are there several pages on your site that compete for the same set of keywords? If so, is it advisable to aggregate these or reoptimize certain pages?
The average amount of time spent on a page. Are users visiting your blog pages and then leaving without engaging? If this is the case, what might your page be lacking that your users were looking for when they searched for your target keywords?
Accessibility. Are your sites readable in terms of text size, font type, and colour contrasts? Does your written and non-written material consider website accessibility features like alt tags and clear heading structures?
Stale or out-of-date content Is your content showing symptoms of deterioration? Is information presented, for example, that is no longer accurate or relevant to your business offering or goals?
Content that is too thin or of poor quality. Is there ever a time when there is little to no material on a page for Google to crawl? If so, is this consistent with competitors, or do these pages need to be improved or removed? Are there any situations when your brand’s present rules or standards need to be improved?
Content duplication Is there content on the site that has too many similarities in terms of goal, keyword targeting, or wording?
Content that is underperforming. Is there any material on your site that has been present for a long time but isn’t producing organic traffic or ranking for keywords? If so, does the page provide additional value, or should it be improved or removed?
For more help or advice on how to best prune your existing content – drop me a line.
How to Get Your Company Listed on Google Maps
Do you want to know how to get your company listed on Google? Adding your business to Google Maps is one of the simplest methods to accomplish this.
The procedure is free and straightforward. You may get your business on Google Maps by going directly to Google Maps or by using Google My Business. In any event, Google will want you to authenticate that you are the business’s owner.
Is it worthwhile to use Google Maps for business? Absolutely. Within 24 hours, 76 percent of people who conduct a local search visit a physical business or shop. 28 percent of them make a purchase in the end.
Another way to look at it is that adding your business on Google Maps could enhance your discoverability by 76%. It can also increase your sales by up to 28%.
What Is Google Maps and How Do I Use It?
In a commercial environment, Google Maps makes it possible for consumers and clients to find your company using a Google search. When activated, your company will appear on Google when customers search for local businesses that provide specific services.
For example, if you are a plumber in Montreal, your company will appear when someone searches for “plumber in Montreal.” Here’s an actual Google Maps example, replete with actual plumbing firms.
How awesome would it be if your company also appeared in local searches? In fact, with a little more SEO, Google will feature your business in the Local Pack, making it even easier to find.
The Local Pack on Google is a “top three” list of the finest local businesses for various queries. Your website, directions to your location, ratings, opening hours, and any other information that may entice potential customers are all included in the listing. However, unless you list your business on Google Maps, it will not appear in the Local Pack results.
Google Maps may be the most significant component of any local SEO campaign because it makes your business easily discoverable in local searches.
How Much Does It Cost to Get Your Company Listed on Google Maps?
Adding your company to Google Maps is entirely free. You only need to create a free Google business profile. You can then add your business to Google Maps to reach more clients.
How to Get Your Company Listed on Google Maps
You can add your business to Google Maps in two ways. The first is to use Google Maps directly, and the second is to use Google My Business.
Step 1: Go to Google Maps and search for your company.
Go to google.com/maps/ and type in the name of your company in the search field. If your company appears, it is already listed. Because anybody may add a business to Google Maps, yours may already be listed.
If your business does not appear in Google Maps results, you will be given the option to “Add a missing place.”
Step 2: Fill in the blanks.
Select “Add a missing spot.” The following window will allow you to submit information about your company. This comprises the name of your company, its category, and its location.
Your company will already be listed on Google Maps at this time. However, until you claim the listing, it will not appear on Google Maps or in the Local Pack.
Step 3: Register your company.
You’ll see a link to “Claim this business” in the following window. This informs Google Maps that you are the business’s owner. As a result, Google will allow you to change any information as needed in the future. You can, for example, include your website, contact information, operation hours, and so on.
Step 4: Confirm the company’s legitimacy.
Google will need to authenticate that you are truly the proprietor of the business as you state in this final stage. Often, they’ll do this through an email-based postcard.
It should arrive within two weeks. Changes to any of the details will result in a new code from Google, which will necessitate a new postcard.
The postcard has a one-of-a-kind PIN that you enter online to verify your business. You must do this within 30 days after requesting the code in order for it not to expire. After verification, it usually takes a few weeks for your business to appear on Google Maps and other Google platforms.
How to Use Google My Business to Get Your Business Listed on Google Maps
Google My Business (GMB), now known as Google Business, is a free service for managing how your business appears on Google platforms such as Google Maps. You don’t need a website to use GMB, although having one helps a lot when it comes to ranking on Google’s search platforms.
Here’s a step-by-step tutorial to getting your business on Google Maps with Google My Business.
Log in to your business account on the Google My Business website. If you don’t already have an account, you can create one here.
Step 2: Look for your company.
Once you’ve logged in to Google My Business, search for your company precisely how you want it to appear in Google. If your company’s name displays with its address, that signifies it’s already on Google My Business. In that situation, you’ll need to claim it and prove that you’re the rightful owner.
If your company does not display in search, select “Create a business with this name.” Now, type out your company’s name precisely as you want it to appear on Google.
GMB setup – enter the name of your company that you wish to appear on Google.
Suffixes such as LLC and Inc. are permitted, but are not required.
Step 3: Select a business category.
On the next page, from a drop-down menu, choose the category that best fits your company. You can also type it in and Google will propose alternatives.
This is critical since it tells Google which local searches should display your business.
Step 4: Determine if Google Maps should display your company’s location.
If your company has a storefront or a brick and mortar site, you’ll probably want Google Maps to route clients and potential consumers to the exact location of your store or shop. In such scenario, when prompted if you wish to add a place, select “Yes.”
Do you have a physical location for your GMB setup?
If, on the other hand, you run your business from home, you’ll undoubtedly want to keep your location confidential. In that instance, selecting “No” makes more sense.
Step 5: Enter your company’s address.
If you want to display your company’s location, enter its address now. If you already selected not to display location, you can skip this step.
Step 6: Look for possible matches.
As previously stated, your company may already be featured on Google Maps and Google My Business. If Google finds any listings that match your address, it will display them.
If the discovered listing belongs to your company, you must claim and validate it. If not, proceed to pick “This doesn’t match.”
Step 7: Determine your service areas.
Does your company serve consumers who live outside of your immediate vicinity? If so, notify Google and proceed.
You’ll be asked to specify the locations you service.
Instead of individual towns and cities, you might choose to enter county names.
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Step 8: Include your contact information.
Enter your company’s phone number and website address. Keep in mind that this is the phone number that will be displayed publicly by Google. As a result, it’s advisable to use your business phone number rather than your personal phone number.
If you don’t already have a website, Google can design a simple one for you. Simply choose “Get a free website based on your information.”
Step 9: Complete and validate your business on Google Maps.
To finish the process, click “Finish.”
You must still prove that you are the owner of the firm as claimed. Google will present you with five verification alternatives. The five are as follows:
- Google will send you an actual postcard.
- Email – An email with a verification code will be sent to you.
- Phone – You will receive a call from Google with a verification code.
- If you already have a Google Search Console account and a validated website, this option is available.
- Bulk — Select this option if your company has more than ten locations.
Step 10: Fill in the blanks with your company’s information.
Finally, GMB will let you personalise your business page. This includes entering your business hours, writing a description for your company, enabling messaging, submitting images, and so on.
This is followed by another page where you may add extra information, such as co-managers and a business logo.
Is It Worth It to Advertise on Google for My Business?
Google My Business is well worth the investment. For starters, it adds your company to Google Maps, which improves both physical and online visibility. Second, GMB allows you to present as much information about your company to your customers as possible. Google My Business also allows you to browse and reply to consumer reviews and feedback. At the end of the day, GMB not only increases your customer base, but also your interactions.
Why isn’t my business listed on Google Maps?
If your company listing does not have a location authority, it will frequently not appear on Google Maps. For the business to appear on Maps, you must enable location.
Otherwise, it will only appear on Google Maps if a searcher is standing directly in front of your business when searching for it on Google Maps.
Make Better Use of Google Maps
Google Maps is only the first step in launching a great search engine optimization strategy. It must be combined with a decent website that can be found on Google Search, as well as conscious optimization work, in order to maximise your clickthrough rate and sales.
Is SEO a Dying Sector?
The same question is posed to digital marketers year after year. ‘Does SEO have a future?’ Is it a dying trade?’
When this rhetoric rears its ugly head at the end of the year, it astounds me. I’m wondering why SEO is getting so much attention. The unequivocal response is no. The SEO industry is not extinct. In fact, I believe SEO will grow in importance over the next 5-10 years. As more firms move to an online model, and as more governments encourage SMEs to learn more about digital tactics, SEO will become more valuable. Digital marketing is a mash-up of numerous channels, and I feel SEO has been and continues to be neglected.
The SEO sector has been tainted with a brush that should have been left in the early 2000s, whether due to a lack of expertise or otherwise.
Why are people claiming that SEO is no longer relevant?
The simple answer is a lack of comprehension. SEO, which was quickly followed by SEO specialists, has become enormously sophisticated. And I understand why. Some aspects of SEO are exceedingly difficult to understand. When you mention faceted navigations or PWAs, the ordinary site or business owner’s eyes will start to glaze over.
These are the topics that lead the general public to feel that SEO is a dying industry. Another factor to consider is that individuals want to rank at the top of Google without having to pay for SEO. I believe that SEO is underappreciated by the general public (IMO). They’re simply too complex for individuals to absorb in a short period of time. The simple alternative is to switch to PPC, social advertising, or email marketing. All of those play a significant role in any SEO campaign.
Likewise, vice versa. SEO is a black art, which I believe should be abandoned. Only a few will be able to use it. It isn’t only for the rich; it’s for everyone. But, like with anything, not everyone has the time, and not everyone is interested in studying it.
Is SEO still relevant?
When the official announcement of COVID and lockdown 2.0 came about, digital marketing (and marketing spending) came massively under fire. However, SEO demonstrated how valuable it could be to an organisation when physical store visits were forbidden.
The outcomes you can achieve from SEO are sustained by allocating a monthly budget to it. So, if you decide to lessen your on-page SEO or link-building activities, you should expect a drop in organic traffic and ranks. Obviously! So, yes, absolutely, SEO is especially vital. Even during pandemics, Google will remain the most popular search engine.
Do the major search media outlets make mistakes?
Every journalist has one goal: to get as many people to look at their work as possible. Does this imply that the SEO sector makes mistakes from time to time? Absolutely. It’s the same as any other industry throughout the globe.
If one popular search outlet publishes an article proclaiming, ‘Is SEO Dead?’ – trends will arise. It’s entirely natural. During these moments, I recommend paying attention to the search engine result pages (SERPs). If you’ve been watching your competition all year, you’ll notice any changes to their SEO approach.
Forbes would not be my first option for determining whether SEO is dead. I’d rather experiment with firms like Search Engine Journal. Alternatively, you can rely on prominent Twitter feeds to acquire the most up-to-date information. You can find the official Google Twitter feed in this article I wrote about the Google algorithm…
It's not only about keywords and rankings.
It isn’t, believe me. I know at least 20 SEOs who are experts in extremely specialised areas of search engines and their signals who would disagree with this statement.
SEO is the process of developing a website for a company that solves all of their target audience’s needs. It’s all about the experience, whether it’s with a product or service, or with useful content. Conversions, traffic growth, increased rankings (yeah, it’s a component of it), brand exposure, PR, online authority, and income are the end results of that experience.
You’ll never realise the benefits of SEO if you look at it in isolation. You could, but it’s not the whole picture. SEO has helped millions of businesses thrive online all over the world.
Paid marketing vs. natural search
When the debate over PPC vs. SEO comes up, I always find it fascinating. I won’t go into too much detail concerning PPC vs. SEO because a fast Google search will tell you everything you need to know. But here are my two pence…
SEO and PPC (or any type of paid marketing) should be used in combination, not alone. If you need short-term traffic to a page that you’ve just spent a week creating and optimising for SEO, PPC can help. If you want to gradually eliminate your reliance on paid ads and rely solely on organic visitors, SEO can help.
That brings me to my next point….
Paid search and SEO are linked via KPIs.
What is your primary objective as a marketer? Whether you work for a client or in-house? My goal is to get as many visitors as possible to visit my website or specific pages. What I do should be determined by the best path for growth. Whether I used PPC and paid social in conjunction with SEO, or whether I employed e-mail marketing. It makes no difference.
SEO continues to play a significant role in driving revenue and growth. However, no marketing channel should be considered in isolation. Everything should function as a whole. You’ll obtain considerably better outcomes if you focus on your company’s key performance indicators (KPIs) rather than specific rankings or budgets.
Is Google suffocating the SEO industry?
This is something I can believe in.
Since I began my practice more than 4 years ago, there has been a continuing struggle between Google and SEOs. The power struggle and mystery surrounding Google’s algorithms has long seemed to put SEOs on the defensive. Google has worked hard to improve its algorithms in order to make organic search more credible for users. Google wants consumers to search for a question and get the best answer possible. On the surface, that appears to be quite straightforward.
You’ll win if you create exceptional content that addresses your customers’ questions. You’ll do exactly what Google requests. I wouldn’t have a job if it were that simple. SEO is interesting because of the subtleties of search engines.
However, it is far from dead, and Google is merely attempting to improve the user experience, whether or not at the expense of an online business. They are unconcerned.
Why isn't SEO a dying industry?
COVID has shown that maintaining your business online might mean the difference between profit and failure. With a significant increase in online commerce, it exposed the companies that invested in SEO and those that did not. This demonstrates that SEO is not dead. It’s just not as popular as Google Ads. Or perhaps Facebook advertisements.
What you should realise is that SEO is an essential component of any digital marketing strategy. Sometimes you don’t realise how/why, which is why SEO and Google’s algorithms education is critical.
Survival Advice
My advice for dismissing headlines that proclaim “SEO is a dying industry” is to simply ignore them.
Don’t be concerned about what journalists or other SEOs say. Concentrate on what works best for you and your company. Whether you own a small, medium, or large company, there is always room for growth. Is SEO usually the best (or first) option? No. No, not always. But, do I believe it is always present? Absolutely.
SEO's Future
At best, the future of SEO as an industry will be stable, but I expect massive growth in the next 5-10 years. SEO will become a more widely understood marketing practise. I anticipate there will be an influx of organisations that want to include SEO into their operations or individuals who want to learn the art of website ranking.
If you’d like to schedule a 15-minute chat with me, I’d be happy to show you how SEO may improve your business.
