We deleted eight of our own blog posts. Here is why.

Delete a blog post when it gets no clicks, targets a question your business does not answer, and nothing else on your site depends on it. Then send its address to the closest useful page with a permanent redirect so nobody lands on a dead end. On 12 October 2026 we did that to eight posts on our own site, and this is the test we used and the reasons for each one.

The numbers behind the decision

We pulled Search Console data for pagecog.com.au from 1 January to 10 October 2026, by page. The eight posts had a combined zero clicks and 235 impressions in nine months. That is a small number, and it is the point: they were occupying space and telling Google something about us that was no longer true.

The test for each post was three questions:

1. Does it get any clicks? None of the eight did.
2. Does it match what we now sell? Pagecog is a monthly website plan, with optional SEO and Google Ads management, for businesses across Australia.
3. Could it be replaced by a better page we already have?

Posts that are old but still match the offer were kept.

The eight, and why

We did not delete everything weak. Our WordPress migration posts, our custom website development guides, the cost guide, the maintenance plan post and the SEO retainer post stayed, even where traffic was low, because they match what we sell.

How we removed them

Deleting a file is the easy part. The steps that protect you are the others:

1. Write the redirect map first. Each old address got a permanent 301 to the closest relevant page. The two store comparison posts went to our WordPress migration post, the thin SEO list went to our post on what to do first for small business SEO, and the launch announcement went to the Why Pagecog page.
2. Test the redirects. We covered the redirect map with an automated test, so a later change cannot silently break it.
3. Fix the links that pointed at the old posts. Four other posts on the site linked to deleted pages. We repointed two, removed one link and replaced two links in a fourth with a plain sentence. A redirect works for visitors, but a site that links to its own redirects is untidy and wastes a hop.
4. Rebuild the sitemap. With the files gone, the sitemap drops them on the next build, so Google is not told to crawl pages that redirect.

When not to redirect

We redirected because each post had a sensible destination. If the closest page would be unrelated, a redirect is misleading, both to visitors and to a search engine deciding what the old address meant. In that case let the address return a 404 or 410. Redirecting everything to the home page is a common shortcut and tends to read as a soft error.

What we have not measured

We have not seen any effect from the deletions on our other pages yet, and we are not claiming one. The eight posts had almost no traffic, so there was little to lose, and the benefit we are after is a site whose pages all match the offer. Our post on reading average position explains why a week or two of data on a small site tells you very little, so we will not judge it early.

If you are weighing a prune of your own

1. Export clicks and impressions by page for at least six months.
2. Mark every post with zero clicks, then ask whether it matches what you sell now.
3. For each one you cut, name the page its address should go to. If you cannot, keep the post or let it 404.
4. Search your own site for links to the removed addresses and fix them in the same change.

If you are rebuilding a whole site and worried about the same address problem, our post on redesigning without losing your rankings goes further.

How this fits a monthly plan

Content pruning is routine upkeep that a site on our base plan gets as part of the monthly fee, and deciding what to cut from the data is part of the SEO add-on. To ask us to look at your site, get started.