Summary
- I discovered a hidden ranking factor by systematically removing low-performing pages to recover from Google’s September 2023 update.
- Sites like House Fresh and Guitar Chalk recovered by deleting up to 23% of their content.
- Google now flags sites with a high percentage of low or no-traffic pages, seeing them as a waste of resources.
- Over 7.5 million blog posts are published daily, making Google’s detection of spam more critical.
- Removing unhelpful content is recommended by Google to help improve rankings.
- High-level content that doesn’t add value affects website performance negatively.
- I faced significant revenue losses and website performance issues due to the update.
- James Dulia and I brainstormed various strategies like brand search volume and monetization diversity.
- Consider both sitewide and page-level penalties when assessing the impact of updates.
- Removing unhelpful content can improve the site’s overall ranking, as stated in Google’s guidelines.
- James Dulia’s tactic involves using Google Search Console to identify pages with less traffic and redirecting or deleting them.
- Focus on pages with less than 30 clicks or irrelevant topics and consider content merging when doing redirects.
- This strategy saves Google resources and improves internal linking efficiency.
- The Search Initiative’s method achieves significant traffic increases and includes content updates for pages that can be improved.
- Clients often prefer updating content over redirecting or deleting it due to the sunk cost fallacy.
- Refreshing content can help recover pages if redirecting isn’t preferred.
Video
How To Take Action
I would suggest implementing a few straightforward strategies to improve your site’s performance and recover from any negative effects of algorithm updates. Start small with low-cost, high-value items.
Step 1: Remove Low-Performing Pages
First, identify pages that aren’t adding value. Use Google Search Console to check for pages with less than 30 clicks over the past year. Mark these pages, especially if they cover off-topic subjects or don’t align with your website’s main focus. Removing these ‘poop’ pages helps your site by saving Google’s resources and boosting the value of your internal links.
Step 2: Redirect or Merge Content
Redirect pages with low traffic to closely related, more valuable pages. This tells Google the low-performing page doesn’t exist anymore and reassigns its value to a more relevant page. If some content from the low-performing page is useful, consider merging it into the redirection target. This boosts the value of the redirecting page.
Step 3: Update Content
For pages you don’t want to delete due to the sunk cost, update and refresh their content to make it more helpful and relevant. This helps potential recovery if the page starts to perform better after the update. Regularly review and update these pages to keep content fresh and valuable.
Step 4: Monitor and Adjust
Keep an eye on your site’s performance after making changes. Continue to use Google Search Console to track improvements. If a page still underperforms after an update, consider another round of edits or a final redirect.
Using these simple steps, you can systematically improve your site’s performance, giving Google exactly what it wants: higher quality, more helpful content.
Quotes by Wiki Wayne
“Here we go the August Google core algorithm update is now rolling out”
– Wiki Wayne
“Guitar chalk nuke 23% of their content”
– Wiki Wayne
“Removing unhelpful content could help the rankings of your other content”
– Wiki Wayne
“They’re poop”
– Wiki Wayne
“What is a podcast article my website is about SEO affiliate marketing”
– Wiki Wayne
