Latest / Content Marketing with Fexingo: Blogs, Videos, and Long-Form Content That Converts / How Content Pruning Boosted Traffic and Leads for Ahrefs
Transcript
- Lucas: You know, I think we've been conditioned to believe that more content is always better. Publish more, get more traffic, generate more leads. But there's a growing body of evidence that sometimes the smartest move is to take content away. Luna: Take content away? You mean deleting blog posts? Lucas: Exactly. It's called content pruning, and one of the most documented examples comes from Ahrefs. A few years ago they looked at their blog—over 3,000 posts—and realized a huge chunk was dragging down their overall performance. So they pruned about 40% of those pages. Deleted some, merged others, or redirected them to stronger content. Luna: That seems drastic. Didn't they lose traffic from those deleted pages? Lucas: Short-term, maybe a little. But within six months, their organic traffic to the remaining content went up 20%. And more importantly, leads from organic search increased 30%. That's a direct lift from fewer, better pages. Luna: So what was their criteria for deciding what to cut? Lucas: They used a data-driven approach. First, pages with zero organic traffic in the last six months were obvious candidates. Then they looked at engagement—pages with high bounce rates or very low time on page. Finally, they identified content that was outdated, like old case studies or product reviews that no longer reflected the current product. Luna: But what about long-tail traffic? Some of those posts might have been getting a trickle of visits that could add up. Lucas: That's a valid concern, and Ahrefs addressed it by redirecting any page that had even a small amount of traffic to a closely related article. So the link equity wasn't lost. Plus, by consolidating that authority into fewer pages, those target posts actually started ranking better for more terms. It's the idea of topical authority—Google sees a site as more expert when it has comprehensive, interlinked content on a topic, not a thousand shallow posts. Luna: That makes sense. So it's not just deleting, it's strategically consolidating. Lucas: Right. And this is especially relevant in 2026 because Google's helpful content system continues to get better at rewarding quality over quantity. Sites with thin, low-value content are being deprioritized. Pruning is one of the most effective ways to improve your site's overall quality signal. Luna: We've talked a lot about creating content that converts. If these conversations have sparked something you've actually used—maybe a pruning project of your own—we'd love your support. It's what keeps the show ad-free and lets us keep digging into strategies like this. You can buy us a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: I second that. Now, back to pruning—let's talk about the actual process. The first step is a full content audit. You need to export all your URLs, and then layer on data from Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Luna: How do you determine which pages to merge versus delete? Lucas: Ahrefs used a system where if a page had some traffic but was thin, they'd redirect it to a more comprehensive article on the same topic. If a page had no traffic and no value, they'd delete it outright. But they were careful to set up 301 redirects to the best matching page, and they monitored for any drop in rankings for those redirected URLs. Luna: Did they have any negative side effects? Lucas: They reported a slight drop in total indexed pages, of course, but no significant ranking losses. In fact, many of their remaining posts moved up in search results. The key is to do it gradually and not delete everything at once. Luna: So what's the takeaway for a smaller company with maybe 200 blog posts? Lucas: Start with the easiest wins. Identify every post that hasn't had a single visit in the last six months. For each one, ask: can I update this to add value? If not, redirect it to a related, stronger post. Monitor the traffic to both the old and new URLs for at least a month. You'll likely see a net positive. Luna: And for measuring success, you look at organic traffic overall and conversions from those pages? Lucas: Exactly. Set a baseline before you start, then track monthly organic sessions and goal completions. Ahrefs saw their conversion rate from organic traffic increase because the visitors were landing on higher-quality pages. So it's not just about traffic numbers—it's about the quality of that traffic. Luna: That raises an interesting question: are you brave enough to cut what isn't working?