Going through SEO is like pruning a tree in your garden – when done thoughtfully, it encourages healthy growth.
However, hastily deleting pages from your website without due consideration can be the digital equivalent of reckless pruning. It can potentially disrupt the flow of ‘link juice‘, diminish content value, and leave visitors searching in vain for information they once found useful.
When considering removing pages, it is pivotal to weigh the implications. Getting rid of content from your dental website can have a profound impact on its search engine visibility and user experience.
In this guide, we’ll answer the question – “Is deleting pages bad for SEO?” We’ll also examine some approaches that may be a better way to manage outdated texts or elements that you simply don’t want to have appearing on the website anymore. Having a detailed overview of the effects and potential complications will help you decide whether you’re going to employ such a content management approach or not.
The Key Concepts Of Dental Search Engine Optimisation
SEO is essentially about enhancing a website’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). To achieve this goal, search engines use complex algorithms that analyse numerous factors to determine the relevance and authority of web pages.
Some of the top elements that play a role in the way your dental website will be indexed include:
- Relevance – How well a page’s content matches the user’s search query.
- Authority – The credibility and trustworthiness of a website, often measured by the number and quality of backlinks.
- User Experience – Factors like page load speed, mobile-friendliness, and overall user satisfaction.
The Impact Of Page Deletion On SEO
Deleting pages from your website can have significant impacts on SEO. Some of the most profound negative consequences include:
Loss of Indexed Content
When pages are deleted, search engines lose content to index, potentially diminishing your website’s visibility in search results.
The loss of previously available content can affect your SEO rankings as search engines rely on a variety of indexed pages to determine relevance. With diminished visibility, your website may struggle to attract organic traffic, impacting your overall online presence.
To maintain a strong SEO standing, regularly audit and update your site’s content, ensuring that search engines have ample material to index. This proactive approach will help sustain and improve your website’s visibility, keeping it competitive in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
You can also work on modifying the pages that are no longer aligned with your content strategy or that have become outdated. For example, a blog post on teeth whitening from five years ago can be updated to reflect innovation and new techniques that have become available recently. Such an approach will maintain the original content while adding more to it and boosting its relevance.
Broken Inbound Links
Deleting pages may result in broken links, affecting the overall user experience and causing SEO issues.
Broken internal links can harm your website’s reputation and authority. Users navigating your site may encounter frustrating dead ends, leading to user dissatisfaction. If a page links to another piece of content that’s meant to clarify a certain concept but is currently missing, the readers can experience dissatisfaction and leave your dental site.
Additionally, search engines consider broken links a sign of poor website maintenance, potentially lowering your site’s ranking.
To uphold a positive user experience and maintain SEO credibility, regularly check and update your site, fixing broken links promptly. This proactive approach ensures a seamless browsing experience and contributes to a stronger online presence.
Keyword Relevance Shift
Pages you delete from your dental website have certain keywords associated with them. Removing these pages may lead to a shift in your website’s keyword relevance, impacting its ability to rank for specific search terms that are important.
The absence of these targeted keywords could result in diminished visibility for your site in relevant searches, affecting the overall effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts. To mitigate this negative effect, analyse the keywords associated with deleted pages and incorporate them strategically into your remaining content.
You may also want to come up with new, more relevant pages that highlight the old keywords in a new and more meaningful way.
Negative User Experience
Deleting pages without proper redirects can result in a poor user experience. People who can’t reach the content that they’re interested in will probably leave your dental website and seek information elsewhere.
Having an individual entering your website and looking at just one page is known as bounce rate. It is a negative search engine optimisation metric.
High bounce rates and low time-on-site metrics may negatively influence your website’s rankings. Search engines view those as indicators of poor content quality, a bad user experience or a lack of content relevance.
Prioritising a positive user experience is crucial, as search engines like Google consider user behaviour a key ranking factor. To prevent a decline in SEO performance, ensure that deleted pages are redirected appropriately or replaced with relevant content. This approach maintains a seamless user journey, enhancing your website’s appeal and contributing to improved search engine rankings.
Impact on Local SEO
Deleting location-specific pages may diminish your visibility in local searches, affecting your ability to attract region-specific traffic and customers.
Removing pages associated with specific locations can result in a drop in local search rankings, making it harder for potential patients in those areas to find your business online.
To safeguard your local SEO efforts, consider updating or redirecting location-specific pages rather than deleting them outright, ensuring your business maintains its prominence in relevant regional searches.
When To Delete Vs. When To Improve
Determining when to delete or enhance a page can significantly affect your site’s SEO performance.
- Delete a page when it’s riddled with outdated or incorrect information that could harm your practice’s credibility or when the content is no longer relevant to your services.
- Improve a page if it has potential for audience engagement but currently underperforms due to subpar content or poor optimisation.
- Consider if the page serves a historical purpose but receives little to no traffic. Archiving might be more suitable than outright deletion.
- Opt for deletion if the page violates Google’s Webmaster Guidelines or has incurred a penalty, and remediation is not feasible or practical. In instances where pages hold some intrinsic value but are not aligned with your current strategy, improvement is preferable. When deletion is the right course, proceed with caution, ensuring you understand the implications for your site’s SEO health.
Best Practices For Deleting Pages Without Harming SEO
There are best practices for deleting pages without harming SEO. When removing or deleting pages from your website, it’s important to follow certain guidelines to minimise any negative impact on your search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts. Here are a few best practices to consider:
Evaluate Page Performance
Before deleting a page, assess its performance, including its organic traffic, backlinks, and conversions. If a page is receiving significant traffic or has valuable backlinks, consider redirecting it to a relevant page instead of deleting it entirely.
Implement Proper Redirects
When deleting a page, use a 301 redirect to point users and search engines to a relevant page on your website. A 301 redirect ensures that any existing links and search engine value associated with the deleted page are transferred to the new destination.
Update Internal Links
Once you’ve removed a page, ensure that any internal links pointing to that page are updated or redirected to the new relevant page. This helps maintain a seamless user experience and ensures that search engines can crawl and understand the new page structure.
Monitor Crawl SEO Performance
After deleting a page, closely monitor your site’s SEO performance to ensure there are no negative effects. Keep an eye on organic traffic, keyword rankings, and overall site visibility to identify any potential issues that may arise from the deletion. Make any necessary adjustments or optimisations to mitigate any negative impact.
Create a Custom 404 Page
Rather than showing a generic error page when a user lands on a deleted page, create a custom 404 page that provides helpful navigation options and directs users to other relevant areas of your website. This can improve user experience and reduce bounce rates.
Regularly Conduct Site Audits
It’s important to regularly review your website’s content and identify any outdated or underperforming pages that may need to be deleted. Conducting regular site audits allows you to stay on top of your site’s SEO health and make informed decisions about which pages to delete or improve.
Maintain a Detailed Record
Document all changes made to your site’s structure, including page deletions and redirects. This record serves as a point of reference for future site audits and optimisation strategies. It also helps you track the SEO impact of these changes and make adjustments if necessary.
By following these best practices, you can confidently delete pages from your website without harming your SEO efforts.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to maintaining a strong online presence for your dental practice, every decision you make about your website can impact your search engine rankings. Deleting pages, while sometimes necessary, requires careful consideration to avoid unintended consequences on your SEO. Removing content without a plan can lead to a loss of valuable keywords, broken links, and a decline in user experience – all of which can hurt your visibility in search results.
However, by approaching page deletion thoughtfully, you can minimise these risks. Before removing any pages, assess their value in terms of traffic, backlinks, and relevance to your current strategy. Where possible, consider improving outdated content rather than deleting it outright, or use redirects to preserve the SEO value of the deleted pages.
Staying ahead means continuously refining your digital presence. Whether you’re deciding to delete, update, or redirect a page, each action should support your broader SEO strategy, ensuring that your practice remains visible and accessible to potential patients.
By following best practices, you can strengthen your online presence and keep your dental practice thriving online.
