Does Deleting 100s of Posts Kill Your Blog?

  March 4, 2023 blogging tips 🕑 7 minutes read
Yaniklar, Turkey

Yaniklar, Turkey

 

I did not transition from being a security guard living in a general malaise to becoming a blogger who circles the globe by following commonly held rules.

 

Blogging appears to be bound by specific rules.

 

But when your intuition goads you to move in the opposite direction of common rules you better follow its guidance.

 

In January of 2023 I faced some blogging resistance while settling into Crete. In laymen’s terms, my blog crashed for a day or so.

 

The intuition told me to delete 100s of low quality blog posts as one solution to my situation.

 

Deleting the dead weight helped me in more ways than I could know.

 

Anyway, doing this triggered the intense fear of breaking a commonly held blogging rule:

 

deleting a high volume of old blog content kills your blog.

 

Bloggers generally believe that deleting a heavy volume of old posts:

 

  • produces broken links
  • diminishes the user experience
  • penalizes your blog in the heavy-handed eyes of the Google algorithm gods

 

Each bullet point item may appear be true. Google traffic may initially drop.

 

Of course you will break links and some readers may not prefer to click through to broken links.

 

But billions of human beings use popular websites other than Google to get what they want. Facebook, Reddit, YouTube and Quora attract billions of human users, collectively. Google traffic temporarily lost shifts attention to alternate traffic sources.

 

Deleting old, low quality blog content en masse may lessen Google traffic (initially) but gradually increases:

 

 

through the billions of human beings who use popular websites to get what they want.

 

For example, an astounding number of human beings will visit Facebook, YouTube and Reddit today to get their questions answered. Helping people in the right spots on each site potentially drives highly-targeted human beings to your credible blog.

 

Does that sound like loss?

 

Plus, Google may even rank new content published after the paralyzing post purge (more on that later).

 

Never Make Google a god or Idol

 

Google is one source of high quality blog traffic.

 

But if Google were the only source of high quality blog traffic not many folks would see Blogging From Paradise.

 

I never made Google into a god or idol because one traffic source is just one traffic source.  Blogging From Paradise generates scant Google traffic because a hefty volume of backlinks point to my blog independent of Google. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Quora, guest posts and genuine blog comments send traffic to Blogging From Paradise because I helped budding bloggers through each of these channels.

 

Thinking abundantly gave me the confidence to delete 100s of blog posts in early 2023 because I knew that each post needed to go and never felt hostage to Google.

 

Stop Being Held Hostage to Google

 

Google traffic rocks.

 

High quality, targeted, profit-building traffic flows from Google. I admit this even though I draw little traffic from the Big G.

 

But billions of human beings make buying decisions based on websites other than Google. I realized this 14 years ago as a new blogger. I allowed this idea to sear itself onto my mind not unlike a cowpoke branding his prized steer.

 

I decided to drive traffic outside of Google to be free of the algorithm’s terrifying tendrils. Letting go the Big G let me delete 100s of blog posts without fear of Google repercussions.

 

Did deleting these posts kill my blog?

 

No.

 

I decided not to depend on Google so lost little if any Google traffic.

 

Note; you cannot lose what you never had.

 

Did deleting 100s of blog posts completely eradicate Blogging From Paradise traffic from:

 

  • Twitter?
  • Facebook?
  • LinkedIn?
  • Quora?
  • Reddit?
  • blog comments?
  • guest posts?

 

Largely, nope.

 

Most traffic from each site points directly to:

 

bloggingfromparadise.com

 

Since I did not delete bloggingfromparadise.com the traffic largely keeps flowing from each site to my blog.

 

See how nicely that works?

 

The 100s of Blog Posts Seemed to Be Non-Performers Anyway

 

What happens when you resist cutting dead branches dangling from a tree?

 

The dead branches eventually fall and smash your car windshield or house roof.

 

Replacing a windshield or repairing a roof becomes highly expensive.

 

Removing the branch yourself or paying a small fee for removal would have saved you serious money.

 

The 100s of blog posts I deleted were dead branches; none drove traffic, targeted readers, fortified my brand or grew my business. But each served as dead weight bogging down my server. 1000 plus cumulative comments associated with the 100 plus dead weight posts made my server buckle at the knees.

 

My blog’s overall performance and user experience came to a grinding halt in January of 2023 through a caching issue amplified by the 100s of posts and 1000s of blog comments pressing down on my sever like those portly twins schlepping around on motorcycles (Google it unless you too were obsessed with world records as a kid).

 

Deleting each post:

 

  • cut blogging dead weight
  • freed a huge chunk of server resources via post and comment removal
  • purged content that put no traffic or money into my pocket
  • sped up my blog for you readers to improve the UX
  • offered you only high quality content to improve the UX

 

Trashing what does not work leaves what works.

 

Everyone largely seems happy.

 

No one pines for the non-performers.

 

We all win.

 

But wait….what about Google traffic?

 

Does Mass Post Deletion Obliterate Google Traffic?

 

I published a detailed post about guest blogging on February 27, 2003.

 

Roughly, this date occurred 1 full month after I flushed the 100 plus posts down the cyber crapper, giving ’em da blogging boot.

 

I Googled:

 

guest blogging errors

 

via an Incognito Browser to see this post at position 7 in my current travel location of Turkey:

 

guest blogging errors

 

Google observes your full body of blogging work before all else.

 

For example, in regard to the above ranking, the Google algorithm said:

 

“This moron deleted 100s of blog posts creating 100s of broken links and a terrible user experience from the perspective of a bot. But the genius published a strong collection of highly-detailed, targeted blog posts since 2014 and it turns out that barely any humans read the deleted blog posts anyway. Since I am a schizophrenic algorithm I will do my best to not see the moron or genius and simply gauge his full body of blogging work over the past 9 years right now, in this moment, via posts published to Blogging From Paradise. He deleted posts that never could sniff page 20 let alone 1 and kept a few page 1 gems with other genuinely helped, detailed content. Ok; we will rank this post on page 1 position 7 right behind Hubspot, Smart Blogger, CopyBlogger, Forbes and other top blogs in the world. We, the split-minded algo, will not officially kill his blog.”

 

Kinda preachy for an algorithm, eh?

 

What Have You Done for Me Lately?

 

Google and humans say:

 

“What have you done for me lately?”

 

Well, in January of 2023, I deleted 100s of low quality, non-performing posts no one deeply wanted and kept a chunk of high quality posts people loved and began publishing only SEO optimized content since then.

 

Seeing the above post on page 1 among the top blogs on earth from my niche proves that:

 

  • Google values highly-detailed content boasting an aged domain on par with fine wine or sharp cheddar (this updated post from 2014 consistently ranked #1 for successful bloggers to follow)
  • Google does not remove all search traffic if you delete 100s of low quality blog posts and keep the high quality blog posts
  • bloggers can still drive Google traffic and tap into the billions of humans who use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Quora and Reddit in addition to guest blogging and blog commenting while deleting 100s of low quality blog posts

 

Perhaps you may lose rank for some Google posts after deleting a high volume of non-performing content. This underscores the importance of diversifying blog traffic sources.

 

But patiently building a rock solid blogging foundation of detailed content keeps rank for some performing posts, lets you rank for recent posts and may help you gain rank for old, updated, quality posts too. Plus traffic will flow consistently to your blog through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit and Quora.

 

Drive traffic through multiple sources, publish thorough posts and you can’t lose much at all because you will always be gaining, predominantly,

 

Conclusion

 

Deleting 100s of low quality blog posts will not destroy your blog.

 

In the short-term you may see a temporary drop in blog traffic.

 

Over the long haul you will accelerate your blogging success by publishing high quality blog content and deleting everything else.

 

Blogging Resources

 

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  1. Lisa Sicard says:
    at 6:45 am

    Hi Ryan, I’ve done the same over the past year. Actually, Google likes that we do that, they don’t want to see crappy or thin content on your site. So it’s a win-win situation. I prefer organic traffic as it’s more authentic, people stay longer and even make a purchase every now and then 🙂 But in the beginning, you do need that social media or blog community lift to build up your organic efforts.
    Bloggers have to work together to build each other up along the way.

  2. Ryan Biddulph says:
    at 10:04 am

    All excellent points Lisa. Google wants detailed content and ignores everything else. Trimming the hedges works wonders. Organic traffic is genuinely the only traffic we want because it leads to loyal readers, income and referral business.

  3. Flip Lelisu says:
    at 10:54 am

    Hi Ryan, I ’ve done the same over the once time. Actually, Google likes that we do that, they do n’t want to see crappy or thin content on your point. So it’s a palm- palm situation. I prefer organic business as it’s more authentic, people stay longer and indeed make a purchase every now and also 🙂 But in the morning, you do need that social media or blog community lift to make up your organic sweats.
    Bloggers have to work together to make each other over along the way.

  4. Stefan (Berkeley Square Barbarian) says:
    at 6:40 pm

    That’s so great to hear, buddy. Most people won’t believe me when I tell them that I deleted more than 200 of my early, very low quality blog posts. It seems crazy. You put in all the work, edited and uploaded the pictures, spent time on SEO, and then you get rid of it. However, totally with you on that one. In the long run it was the right thing to do. My old posts were just so badly written and researched it hurt my eyes reading them (before deleting them). Thanks for sharing your insights here, it’s appreciated.

  5. Ryan Biddulph says:
    at 1:35 am

    That is EXACTLY what most bloggers do not understand my friend: letting go what is NOT outstanding accelerates your success and holding on to it because you fear losing what ain’t working anyway perpetuates your failure. Bravo! Well done!

  6. Chris Desatoff says:
    at 2:59 pm

    Hey Ryan, for the record, I really miss some of those old posts lol =)

    Oh well. I just look at it as an opportunity to declutter my browser and purge some bookmarks that now lead nowhere.

    It’s also a reminder for me as both a consumer and a creator:

    1. AS A CONSUMER: bookmarking a post or video I love doesn’t guarantee that it will always be available for me to revisit – so I should probably copy/paste, print or screen record my favorites while I still can

    2. AS A CREATOR: just because a post gets little traffic it doesn’t mean literally NOBODY values it. So before I delete anything else again – I will make a backup SOMEWHERE for future reference

    Some of my favorite content EVER has been deleted by bloggers/youtubers in the past year or two – posts and videos that were easily in my top 10 or top 100 out of the probably hundreds of thousands that I’ve viewed over the last 10-20 years.

    But zero judgment from me on that. Sometimes creators want to move on, and I get it. I’ve done that myself. We all have our reasons.

  7. Ryan Biddulph says:
    at 4:34 pm

    I feel Chris that even though many of the posts were helpful on some level I did not set up a clear promotional strategy before publishing to blast them to a big enough, targeted enough audience to hit the mark from a branding and business perspective. I also know that on an unconscious level the posts represented something far beyond the worldly reasons I shared. I forgave death, loss and other difficult circumstances in my life and the posts were created as I still clung, rushed, pushed and forced things. Genuinely, many were definitely helpful but the energy behind most seemed to be a lack of clarity that affected me, my blog, my traffic and business. Thanks so much for sharing my friend.