goodroi - 5:36 pm on Feb 18, 2013 (gmt 0)

If you have been running a website for a long time you have probably built up a large number on pages on your site. Some of these pages might have no backlinks and may even have had zero recent traffic. What to do about these pages?

Think about a personal blog that has been posting everyday for the last 10 years. Over time it has grown to over 3650 pages and probably has few links to support that many pages. At what point or in what certain situations is it smart to delete pages?

A few possible reasons to delete pages:
-Your site has limited inbound links, why diffuse that link value amongst unprofitable pages?
-Pages might have old/out of date information that poorly represents you
-Remove distractions so you can focus your limited time & resources on your core money making pages.

A few possible reasons to avoid deleting pages:
-Pages may have no traffic due to seasonal timing
-Rewriting the page can make money, while deleting could remove this opportunity
-You might be breaking up a well themed section of your site.

Personally I do not think there is a simple right or wrong answer to this theoretical debate. Exploring the different options and caveats for this can help us to better understand how to manage our long-term content strategies.

How would you decide to delete pages or not?