Deleting Pages/SEO impact

[xYassassinYx]

Hey guys,

Just bought a site and want to redo all of the content.

Theres a few posts (all of which are pretty weak) should i delete them and remove url in webmaster tools?

There is also several pages of outdated information i'd like to just delete as it is of no use and not a topic i want to focus on so don't want to waste money having it rewritten.

I did think about just listing all the pages/posts i dont want on an 'archives' page, but it will still be weak content on my site so would love to hear some opinions on what i should do.

More info: The site contains 35 pages of content, is on an exact match domain, and is on page 1 for my keyword.

Cheers,
Alan

[guruslash]

Take it you are looking to delete most of those 35 pages then?

If it was me I'd naturally first check there's no links pointing at any of those pages, otherwise 301's are needed.
If there is no way to re-use the page & url of it for better content then sure - delete. But be wary of deleting too much without first having quality content up to match what you're taking down, especially when there's so little content to begin with.

But thinking about it now, if its not godawful content then I might actually archive it first and build up with fresh, strong content and only remove it slowly thereafter.

Afterall, it might be part of the reason the site's ranking for your keyword.

[parttimepoker]

I'm prone to agree that you shouldn't remove anything if the page is performing ok. Nothing wrong with shuffling it off to an archives page. I assume the content has been around for some time, and it seems like it would have been dinged by now if it was an issue.

This is the g guide for removal (just for reference):
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Easier URL removals for site owners

I would not use 301s, that's not what they're really for (unless you have relevant content to redirect to).

[MJ]

35 pages and it's ranking on page 1 for your main keyword? UPDATE/IMPROVE them!

[xYassassinYx]

35 pages and it's ranking on page 1 for your main keyword? UPDATE/IMPROVE them!

I want to take the site in a new, better direction and feel the new content i'll be adding will be of much better benefit (both to visitors and the search engines).

Plus the majority of content currently on the site is out of date and promotes casinos which no longer offer what I'm promoting.

Thanks for the input guys, i think I'm going to delete the posts (theres no links to any of them, and they are just 8x200- word posts) and place the pages in an archives page after i get my new content.

[pokeraussie]

If we're talking a few pages it's not detrimental to SEO. Just delete the pages and if there is links pointing to the pages redirect to the homepage or a new URL.

[Ridge]

Well, I'm not sure why you would just delete them. Do they get zero traffic? If so then ok, but that is super unusual.

If they do get traffic, why not give them a place to go? Hard to give suggestion when we are clueless what the site is about. but either way, if they get traffic, then give the traffic a place to go, Even if they are all directed to a new landing page with some odd ball offer, newsletter signup, or something.

No traffic is useless, NONE

I've bought many site and domain with sometimes hundreds of pages - I've been tempted to just delete them all and start fresh - But long term that isn't the best move IMO -

Example:

I have been doing a lot of non-gaming things recently. I work with some relaly cool networks which have a variety of CPL type offers. When I make $2-$5 per lead. Most times this is simply an email capture, or some type of email + social network share. I recently bought an older site with 3 pages on horrible coontent. Instead of deleting them, I created 1 new landing page and split tested 4 diffrent CPL offers while I banged out the new landing pages. Within 30 days the CPL had paid for the cost of the site, plus a profit of $200.

Now those are OMG awesome numbers, but total time was about an hour. Plus I have good split testing data