How to Deal with Underperforming Content
Is there a place for underperforming content? Well, it depends on how valuable you consider the poor performing pages on your website to be. It’s not ideal to keep unnecessary articles especially if people are not searching for them. You need to remember that you are not writing just to increase the number of pages on your sitemap. However, you want to add value to the site.
Google has been emphasizing the importance of quality content which means we are always improving outdated data. That’s why you always need to evaluate your site and apply content pruning techniques. We look at what is dead weight content, how to improve it and help your website become healthy.
What Content Adds No Value?
Underperforming content has to do with pages that are not performing to their full potential. So, which content is considered to be bad and may need to be removed or reworked?
- Articles that don’t get any engagement (traffic, clicks, ranking position, bounce rate, etc.)
- Outdated pages.
- Content that is not compelling.
- The content does not go along with the user intent.
- Pages with thin or duplicated content.
- Content that is missing backlinks.
- The page is not visible.
With that said, you’ll need to use Google Analytics, Search Console, Semrush, Ahrefs, and other tools to guide you when content auditing.
Improve Underperforming Content
How to improve low performing pages? Firstly, you need to have an overview of your content and how it’s performing such as page visits and other metrics. You’ll also need to ask yourself questions like, “does this content catch my potential customer?”
- Content pruning is the removal of low performing pages. Your website doesn’t necessarily have to be big for you to do this. This process can be done once in a while for you not to find yourself having to go through a lot of pages.
- Optimize underperforming pages to improve rankings (keyword research, adding statistics, and so on)
- Combine some of the poor quality articles. Make amendments to ensure quality content that reads well.
- Ideally, you also want to have an SEO content strategy when you rework pages. In addition, you have to keep an eye on weak articles and maintain your site for it to be in a good condition.
After a week or so have a look at how the pages are doing. You shouldn’t drastically remove content because your organic traffic can be affected.
Benefits of Removing Poor Performing Pages
When you remove the pages that weigh your website down it improves your overall site health. This means there won’t be pages that damage the ranking of your site. Also, your potential content is allowed to flourish, and link authority runs on pages that matter. Furthermore, you offer your customers good user experience.
Underperforming content is a common problem given the fact that content is key and an important ranking factor. Once you understand why your content is not doing great you’ll be able to make the right changes.
