Remove or Keep? What To Do with Low-Activity Webpages

Picture this: You’re updating your site, and you have a list of high-performing pages and low-performing pages.

You’re looking at the low performers, and you’re wondering which ones to get rid of because, after all, it doesn’t look like they’re doing much.

But this process can go awry if you don’t approach it the right way. Not all low-activity pages are duds, and they shouldn’t all go away.

In this article, I’ll explain how you should look at your low performers and what to do with them.

• The Problem with Removing Low-Activity Pages
• How to Handle Low-Activity Pages
• Verify the Page Is Still Supporting Your Silo
• Refresh the Webpage
• Combine, 301 Redirect or Remove
• Final Thoughts
• FAQ: How do I assess the quality of content on low-activity webpages to update them smartly?

Let’s get into it.

The Problem with Removing Low-Activity Pages

Long-time followers of my advice know that I am a big proponent of SEO siloing — a technique I invented in the early 2000s as a way to organize a site’s content based on the way people search.

Here’s a quick recap: SEO siloing is all about the way you group the content on your site based on target keywords. When done well, it serves as a hierarchy of information that mimics the customer journey.

It allows you to cover a specific topic in-depth through multiple webpages on your site, dedicating each webpage to a target keyword phrase that your audience uses as they go on their journey to learn more about that topic, service or product.

This is one of the ways to signal to Google that there is a lot of information on a certain topic — essentially that you are an expert and authority on the topic.

SEO silos are created in such a way that the main landing page is the page that is to rank for your main keyword (and these are often the more difficult, high-competition keywords).

The landing page is supported by a number of subpages that target supporting keywords.

In these silos, there are sometimes keywords or topics that may not garner as much traffic as others, but that doesn’t mean they are not valuable to the body of work as a whole.

Imagine if you wrote a book, and there was a chapter that perhaps didn’t cover the most compelling aspect of the topic, but was necessary nonetheless. Deleting that chapter would be a disservice to your readers.

The same goes for content in a silo. Sometimes, you target lower volume keywords with content that resides in your silo. But it still serves as part of the “whole” answer to your website visitors.

And, its place in the silo can actually improve the website’s ability to rank for a head term.

We’ve seen cases where clients delete some of the lower performing webpages in a silo, and it actually negatively impacted their ability to rank for their head terms.

For more, see:

• SEO Siloing: What, Why, How
• 5 Times When SEO Siloing Can Make or Break Your Search Engine Rankings

How to Handle Low-Activity Pages

So, what’s the solution if you encounter low-activity pages? Here are some tips.

Verify the Page Is Still Supporting Your Silo

If a low-activity page is no longer supportive of an SEO silo — maybe your target keywords have changed or something else — then you’ll consider what to do with that webpage next.

If it’s still supportive of your silo, keep it, but take a good look at it. Do you still consider it to be of good quality?

If not, updating it is your next best bet.

Refresh the Webpage

Is the content on the page still relevant? Does it need to be made up-to-date to keep with the times? Is your competition doing a better job with that topic than you are?

For many topics, Google rewards up-to-date content (there are times when Google may not care so much, like historical topics with no new information).

It is far better to update an old page than to delete it, if possible.

Check out this article for a detailed guide on how to audit your content: The 13-Step Web Content Audit to Boost Visibility in the Search Results.

Combine, 301 Redirect or Remove

If you’ve determined you can’t update the content to make it relevant to your SEO silo, the next best option is to see if you can combine some of the content into other pages.

For example, there may still be some good information that you can use on another relevant page.

Or, sometimes, you have multiple pages on a similar topic, which you can combine into one big, new webpage on the topic, if you can find a good place for it on your site (hopefully in support of an SEO silo).

Another option is a 301 redirect. A 301 redirect will essentially make that page no longer available, but send users to the next best option.

You choose the page that is most relevant to the topic. In some cases, the homepage will be an acceptable option.

After that, if you must, you can remove the webpage entirely. I have two articles dedicated to this topic, and I recommend you review them before making any changes:

• What Is A 301 Redirect and How to Do One
• How to Remove a Webpage

Final Thoughts

Low-activity webpages are tricky. They seem to signal that they’re not doing their job, but when it comes to SEO silos, they can play an integral part.

As with any page deemed a low performer, more research is needed before getting rid of it. What is it about the page that is no longer relevant? Can it be improved?

Following the steps outlined in this article can help you understand just what to do with those low-activity webpages, so you can be sure they still serve a purpose.

Our SEO experts can help you master SEO siloing, improve your site structure and earn better search rankings.

Get Your Free Consultation

26,000+ professionals, marketers and SEOs read the Bruce Clay Blog

Subscribe now for free to get:

• Expert SEO insights from the “Father of SEO.”
• Proven SEO strategies to optimize website performance.
• SEO advice to earn more website traffic, higher search ranking and increased revenue.

Bruce Clay is founder and president of Bruce Clay Inc., a global digital marketing firm providing search engine optimization, pay-per-click, social media marketing, SEO-friendly web architecture, and SEO tools and education. Connect with him on LinkedIn or through the BruceClay.com website.

See Bruce's author page for links to connect on social media.