Why and how to delete content in bulk for SEO - Search Engine Land

Whenever I mention deleting content in bulk to clients or colleagues, I’m usually met with some form of skepticism or doubt. This is usually wrapped up in several different positions, all of which make sense.

Many times, great efforts were made to produce this content, and deleting it is a blow to the emotions. Beyond the emotional hit is the financial one – content costs money, and good content costs real money. Throwing it away seems like such a waste.

And then there is skepticism around the concept – why would deleting content ever be a good idea? If Google doesn’t like it, they just won’t rank it, right? Bummer, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater, right? It could rank in the future.

We have deleted content in bulk on many websites at our agency, and a recent case study I shared on Twitter surfaced a lot of questions.

Let’s first dive into the idea of deleting content from a theoretical point. Then, let’s look at the scenario I was up against and why, in this case, deleting content in bulk made sense. Finally, the results from our specific use case.

Why delete content?

There are several reasons to consider deleting content in bulk on a website, but the two most pertinent are related to low-quality content and authority/relevance.

Low-quality content

Ever since Google launched the Panda update in 2011, their algorithms have been on the hunt for low-quality content. Panda has been permanently embedded into the core algorithm now, so websites no longer...

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