A clean and organized website is essential for building a reputable online presence while providing an engaging user experience. However, even the best-designed websites can become cluttered as content grows or changes. When this happens, sometimes the practical solution may be to start fresh by condensing content, pages, or entire sections of a website.
That being said, there are some important considerations to make before deleting or condensing content. If you’re not careful, you could unknowingly shoot yourself in the foot regarding your SEO, inadvertently tanking your rankings and losing valuable organic traffic.
Why Would Business Owners Want to Condense Their Websites?
Companies go through several stages of growth over the course of their lifetime. When this happens, the website may need to be redefined to reflect the current business model and offerings.
Below are some common reasons why businesses may want to condense their websites over time:
Improved User Experience
Improving the user experience is one of the largest benefits of condensing websites. Visitors can get easily discouraged when faced with too messy or scattered websites, leaving them frustrated trying to find the information they need.
By focusing on easy navigation and simplifying your site’s layout, you can effectively eliminate redundant features while highlighting details that cater to visitors’ needs.
Faster Load Times
A condensed website generally has fewer features that need loading up, which often translates into quicker page loading times than other websites with packed pages with too many elements. It’s important to recognize that mobile internet browsing customers require fast website experiences when using smartphones or tablets. Slow-loading websites can dissuade users from sticking around for a long time, leading to an uptick in bounce rates, inevitably damaging your overall revenue streams.
Better Mobile Responsiveness
For businesses looking to attract and retain customers online, having a mobile-friendly website is more than just a best practice – it’s essential. With so many users accessing the web exclusively through their phones or tablets, ensuring your site performs well on these devices is key.
To achieve this goal, try implementing responsive design principles and minimizing excessive visual elements that might not translate well across different screen sizes.
Enhanced Brand Image
Ensuring your website has a clean and modern design can mean all the difference in how people perceive your brand online. A well-structured site helps visitors quickly find what they need while reflecting positively on your company’s professionalism and adaptability to new technologies.
Simplifying user experience through good design keeps audiences interested in learning more about what you have to offer them.
How Condensing Your Site Can Harm Your SEO
While condensing your website can bring numerous benefits, it’s essential to approach the process cautiously, as it can also inadvertently harm your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts if not done correctly. Below are some potential pitfalls of site condensation and how they can negatively impact your SEO.
Removing Valuable Content
One of the primary risks associated with condensing your site is the accidental removal of valuable content that contributes to your search rankings. When you eliminate pages or blog posts, you may inadvertently remove keyword-rich content that search engines have indexed and ranked, which could lead to a drop in your site’s overall visibility.
Broken Links and Redirects
Another potential issue that may arise when condensing your site is the creation of broken links or improper redirects. When you delete or move pages, any existing internal or external links pointing to those pages may no longer work, leading to a negative user experience and potentially harming your SEO.
Losing Backlinks
Securing top positions in search engine results requires the strategic use of backlinks. These incoming links from other websites offer evidence of the authenticity and credibility displayed at a site like yours. Losing key backlinks can occur unknowingly when deleting content, leading to an overall drop in rankings.
Changes in Site Structure
When you condense your website, you may also make changes to your site’s overall structure, such as modifying URLs or reorganizing categories. These changes can confuse search engine crawlers and disrupt the indexing of your site, which could negatively impact your SEO rankings.
Best Practices to Follow When Cleaning Up Your Website
Website maintenance is vital for a great on-site user experience and better positioning on search engines. Nevertheless, thorough site cleanup without taking the necessary precautions can result in undesired negative SEO outcomes. Below, we’ve provided practical guidelines for cleaning your site safely.
Auditing Your Website Regularly
When auditing your website, fixing issues without disrupting your current SEO efforts is essential. Schedule your audits during periods of low traffic to minimize the impact on users.
Additionally, use robots.txt to block search engines from crawling specific pages while you’re making updates so they don’t index incomplete or broken content. Once the changes are complete, remove the block to allow search engines to re-crawl and index the updated content.
Keeping Your Content Fresh and Relevant
To update your content without negatively affecting your search rankings, avoid changing the URL structure or removing high-performing keywords. Instead, focus on improving the existing content by adding new information, addressing user feedback, and incorporating relevant long-tail keywords. This approach ensures your content remains valuable and up-to-date while preserving your current SEO efforts.
Fixing Broken Links and Redirects
When fixing broken links, use 301 redirects to permanently direct users and search engines from old pages to new ones, ensuring that link equity is preserved. Avoid using 302 temporary redirects, as they don’t pass link equity and can hinder your SEO efforts.
Optimizing Your Site’s Load Time
Optimizing your site’s load time should not negatively impact your SEO efforts. Implement changes during periods of low traffic to minimize disruption and test the updates thoroughly before making them live. By carefully monitoring your site’s performance and rankings after optimization, you can identify any issues and adjust as needed.
Improving Your Site’s Mobile-Friendliness
Avoid making drastic changes to your site’s structure or content to enhance mobile-friendliness. Instead, implement a responsive design that adapts to different devices without altering the underlying HTML or URL structure. This way, you’ll improve the mobile user experience without disrupting your SEO efforts.
Keeping Your Site Secure
Keeping your site secure is crucial for maintaining user trust and preserving search rankings. When implementing security updates, avoid blocking essential resources like JavaScript, CSS, or images from being crawled by search engines. Also, ensure that your SSL certificate is correctly installed and configured so search engines can index your HTTPS pages.
Monitoring Your Backlink Profile
When managing your backlink profile, focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks from reputable sources while disavowing harmful links. In cases where you need to remove backlinks, request the site owner to update the link with a more relevant page on your site rather than removing it entirely. This ensures link equity is preserved and minimizes potential ranking fluctuations.
Avoiding Keyword Stuffing
To create engaging content, focus on incorporating keywords naturally and contextually. Use semantic variations and long-tail keywords to diversify your content and improve its relevance to users. By taking this step, you can ensure your content is reader-friendly and SEO-friendly.
Don’t Let a Site Cleanup Hinder Your SEO
Condensing your website can improve its user experience and performance. However, if not done correctly, it could result in unintended consequences that harm your SEO efforts. By following the best practices outlined above, you can successfully clear up the clutter on your site while preserving your search rankings.
Author
Jason Khoo started freelancing in SEO back in college, sold his first agency, and now is founder of Zupo, which is an Orange County based SEO consulting agency helping construct powerful long term SEO strategies for our clients. Jason also enjoys multiple cups of tea a day, hiding away on weekends, catching up on reading, and rewatching The Simpsons for the 20th time.