This is another subject that seems to get discussed frequently whenever I’m meeting with website managers. If you’re considering a reduction in the number of pages you have on your website, be careful!
You could jeopardize your site’s overall search engine rankings.
Search engines evaluate your website by indexing as many pages of it as they can find. If your website is both easy to index, and your keywords are used consistently throughout its pages, then the search engines should have a pretty clear understanding of what your website is about.
In the eyes of the search engines, more is more.
As far as on-site optimization is concerned, a website that has 300 pages about a certain topic is probably a better resource than a 40 page website on that same topic, and could therefore receive a better ranking. However, it should be understood that other factors, such as Page Rank and website structure, also affect the search engine’s evaluations.
Deleting pages without setting up the appropriate redirects is also a potential danger. You can lose credit for the incoming links that were once connected to your site. You’ll also no longer receive any of the traffic that was previously delivered through those incoming links.
Instead of deleting pages, a better way to reorganize your site is to adjust its content in order to fit your new corporate message. In my next post, I’ll provide some tips on writing for websites.
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