Google: CNET’s Content Pruning Plans Reasonable But SEO Impact Would Be Unnoticeable

Remember all that debate and chatter around Google saying not to delete old helpful content? A lot of people in our industry jumped on CNET for doing it but the truth is, if you looked at CNET’s plan, it was not without thought, attention to detail and carefully planned.

In short, despite CNET’s plan being “pretty reasonable”, John Mueller from Google said also that the SEO impact would “unlikely to be noticeable.”

CNET published its plan in a PDF document that spoke about removing content that was “no longer relevant or helpful to our audience.” This content included “outdated or redundant content that may confuse or frustrate users looking for up-to-**** information,” the PDF wrote.

John Mueller from Google said on Mastodon that the plan was pretty reasonable but even so, he said the “SEO effects are unlikely to be noticeable.”

He wrote, “I thought their plans were pretty reasonable & nuanced.” “The SEO effects are unlikely to be noticeable, but it still seems like a reasonable direction to go,” he added.

John went on to explain that “Obviously, the plan might be nuanced, and the implementation done with a big chainsaw, but it’s definitely more than old content=bad SEO.”

Forum discussion at Mastodon.