Content pruning: how to decide whether to update, merge or delete an old post

Pruning is often sold as a ranking trick. Google's advice on core updates says: "Deleting content is a last resort, and only to be considered if you think the content can't be salvaged." It adds that wanting to delete whole sections of a site is likely a sign they were made for search engines first, and that in that case deleting the unhelpful content can help the good content perform better.

Its guide to people-first content lists two warning signs that apply to old posts: changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed, and "removing a lot of older content primarily because you believe it will help your search rankings overall by somehow making your site seem "fresh?" (No, it won't)".

So delete a post because it lets readers down and can't be fixed, and change its date only when you have changed what it says.

Put your posts in a spreadsheet, one row each, with a column for each signal:

Each post gets one action: keep, update, merge, noindex or delete. Find the row that fits; if a post fits two rows, take the higher one. Delete is the only action you cannot easily undo.

When the signals disagree, readers break the tie. A post with little search traffic that most readers rate as useful stays. A post with plenty of traffic that most readers rate as unhelpful goes to the top of your update list.

Merging is the usual fix for overlap. Done carelessly, it throws away the links the old post had.

When Google crawls a page and finds a noindex tag or header, it drops the page from its results, whoever links to it. Don't block the page in robots.txt, or Google never sees the rule.

For Google there is little to choose between 404 and 410. Its documentation on HTTP status codes says all 4xx errors except 429 are treated the same, and that indexed addresses returning one are removed from the index. Use 410 to say the post was removed on purpose, or 404 if that's what your blog platform makes easy. On the error page, Google suggests links to your most popular posts and your home page.

The Removals tool in Search Console is for urgent cases: it hides a page within about a day, but its requests last about 6 months, so you still have to remove or noindex the page.

Asklet fills the reader column of the spreadsheet. One snippet in your post template shows a short survey at the end of every post, such as a Yes / No "Did this recipe work for you?" and a multiple choice reason. Results are grouped by page path, so you see the share who found each old post useful, the reasons they picked and their comments, and can compare the weeks before and after a merge or an update.

It doesn't connect to Search Console, count page views or see your links, so you line those up yourself. Readers answer without signing in, and the widget sets no cookies and uses no tracking identifiers.