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When it's got to go, it's got to go...

Did you know that low-quality pages can become a dead weight that would drag a website down?

But what would you consider a low-quality page? And what does it have to do with you?

Before we get into it though, let’s get back to the infamous Panda update for a second.

Not because I want to talk more about it, but because, according to official Google Webmaster Central Blog, Panda is only one of about 500 updates due to roll out this year!

The focus of all these updates is quality.

We all define quality content differently, but it doesn’t really matter what we think; it only matters what Google perceives to be quality content.

How Does Google Define as Quality Content?

And if you want to step into Google’s mindset, the questions below provide some insight into how THEY are looking at the issue (questions below are quoted from the same source above):

• Would you trust the information presented in this article?
• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
• Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
• How much quality control is done on content?
• Does the article describe both sides of a story?
• Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
• Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
• Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
• Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
• Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
• Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

Sounds like a tall order, but it really isn’t: if you are producing original, value-packed articles, you should be OK.

HOWEVER…

Low-quality content on some parts of your website can negatively affect your ENTIRE website’s rankings.

Low-Quality Content on Your Site?

You bet.

Do you have any news-oriented content that is obsolete by now?

Any articles you wrote hastily?

Anything that is too generic to matter?

Or Thanksgiving / Christmas greetings that no one really cares to read in the middle of May?

Low-quality content on some parts of your website can negatively affect your ENTIRE website’s rankings.

As we say it in Russia, repetition is the mother of knowledge - plus it’s that important.

One specific recommendation Google makes to take care of your low-quality content is to remove it altogether or merge it with other pages to create a better quality page - doing that kind of maintenance could eventually help the rankings of your higher-quality content.

Before I got the scoop on this issue on Google’s blog a couple of days ago, I read about it in a post on Michael Gray’s blog and thought “Wow, dude, a bit too extreme, don’t you think? Deleting your content?”

Of course, now that I read about Google recommending the same thing, I can only thank Michael for, once again, leading the pack.

Get Rid of Dead Weight

So what are the recommendations that Michael makes as far as getting rid of your dead weight content?

Step 1: Identify the candidates.

First step is always research.

The best tool for this is Google Webmaster Tools.

You’ll need three pieces of information (all are under “Your Site on the Web” tab):

1. All the pages on your site.
2. How many links each page has (found under “Links to your site”).
3. How many clicks each page gets (found under “Search Queries ==> Top Pages)

The annoying part is that the info is under two different tabs.

So what I did was outsourced putting together on one spreadsheet all 3 pieces of info. It’s up to you how you would like to handle it and how big your site is to begin with. Might be an easy job for you to do on your own.

Step 2: Deal with under-performers.

Now that you know which pages are not performing too well (don’t get many clicks and not many links), you need to find the best way to deal with them.

Note: how many clicks are too few? When I was putting together my research, Google Webmaster Tools let me pull the stats for the past month and a half only. So with that in mind, I decided that anything that got less than 10 clicks within that time frame qualifies as an under-performer.

The only two ways to “deal” with that kind of content is to:

1. Rewrite it or combine with other low-value content to make it into something useful and beneficial to your readers.
2. If the above won’t work for the post, delete it.

I know, it sounds very harsh and final, but per Google, it’s a perfectly good way to possibly increase the importance and thus rankings for your other valuable pages.

And I am sure we are all for that.

Step 3: BACK UP before you making changes.

Very important and very overlooked step.

Before you get on with your spring cleaning, make sure ALL you data - and I am not talking about just the database, you need to backup everything: images, posts, etc.- EVERYTHING is backed up.

Note: I’ve tried a lot of different ways to back up my blog, especially after hearing about so many blogs we all know, or knew I should say, and read, being highjacked by hackers. Backing up your blog is not an option, it’s a must. And after all the plugins I’ve tried, I’ve settled with the paid option of BackUp Buddy. It’s paid because it backs up EVERYTHING and the data is easily retrieved if the need be, and their price is very reasonable. Please do yourself and your blog a favor and check it out now.

Step 4: Set up redirection.

If a post you are relocating or deleting had more than a couple of links going to it, I suggest you set up a redirection of the old URLs to the new ones.

The best and the easiest way to do it is through a plugin. There are multiple ones to choose from; I personally use the plugin that is simply called “Redirection“.

Where to redirect your links to?

If you are simply relocating the page, then the answer is easy.

But if you are deleting the post altogether, then the best place to send those links to is a theme-related post, category or tag pages, or, as the last resort, to your home page.

Step 4: Improve the rankings of your stronger posts.

This step has really nothing to do with our spring cleaning, but it’s an important step towards our ultimate goal: making the rest of our content more valuable and increasing its search engine rankings.

And… it’s a post in its own right.

Marketing Takeaway

Let’s start with the first three steps, get rid of some of the dead weight our blogs carry, and then I’ll see you right back here, on Traffic Generation Cafe, most likely next Monday, with the post on how to further optimize your front running content for it to rank even higher.

However, don’t wait till next Monday to come back; I publish valuable info on free traffic generation on a daily basis, so check back often!

Soooo…. Are you going to do it or ignore it? Comment to show me that you’re alive!

Image credit: FireHow.com

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1. Mistery of Google PageRank Solved?
2. SEO Content Writing: How to Write a Title Pleaser That Ranks Well Too
3. Article Spinning: You Spin Me Right ‘round, Baby, Right ‘round
4. Improve Your Google Ranking: From Lame To Fame in 4 Easy Steps
5. Content Recycling: How to Turn Articles into Videos in 5 Minutes