Mini Authority Site (Site Structure/Linking): Would You Delete Unrankable Content?

[SerpTrek]

Hello, first post...

Scenario: A mini authority site about coffee with 1000+ contextual authority site links to the home page.

The site currently has around 50 articles linked from the home page directly.

Buying Guides (all contextually linked together):

/best-coffee-machines/ <= will never rank too hard (current position 17-26: google page 1 now full of authority sites)
/best-coffee-machines-under-2000/
/best-coffee-machines-under-1000/
/best-coffee-machines-under-500/
/best-black-coffee-machines/

+ about 20 info articles linked off the home page (which all link to the above).

Questions:

• As the /best-coffee-machine/ article exists would you leave it there but remove the home page link?
• Delete the article completely as it's too hard to rank, and just place the "more likely to rank" articles on the homepage.
• Link to that directly from the home page only, like an optimized category page then onto the more specific guides?
  
  Example: home-page => best coffee machine => best coffee machine under $100
  
• Option 4, do nothing and accept it will never rank.

 

[Cash Builder]

I have this same situation on my site. I have 3/4 pages that I will never be able to rank, they are ultra-competitive with the first 3 pages of SERPs all high authority sites.

What I have decided to do with them is to keep the articles live, but optimise them for less competitive terms. I checked search console and got a list of keywords that the page is already ranking for, and would still make sense for the page.

The only thing that I can't change is the URL (unless I set up a 301), so as long as the keyword fits in with the URL then everything else can be changed.

In your coffee example, I checked Ahrefs for an article ranking for best coffee machine and came up with a list of keywords:

Best bean to cup coffee machine
Best home coffee machine
Coffee machine reviews
Best barista coffee machine

I haven't checked the competitiveness of those keywords, but there may be a keyword that is less competitive and you could optimise your page around that.

 

[SerpTrek]

I am doing the same re: lower competition phrases.

However, in some cases I have:

Best coffee maker
Best bean to cup coffee machine
Cheap coffee machines

So it is likely I will delete or 301 the unrankable page.

I did think about using the "best coffee machines" page as a buffer between that and a the home page, but i think it's just a waste of internal link juice.

 

[CCarter]

Why would you delete it when you are on page 2? You literally are getting long tailed keywords from it that you are ranking for without knowing it. If you look back in your analytics, look at how much search traffic came in the last year or so. Then turn around and optimize for terms that have buyer intent so that page can generate you more revenue.

And there is nothing to stop Google from doing an update that suddenly has you in top 10 cause they wanted to nuke some “authority” sites.

 

[ToffeeLa]

You literally are getting long tailed keywords from it that you are ranking for without knowing it. If you look back in your analytics, look at how much search traffic came in the last year or so.

This was actually one of the most useful things I did in the last year - looking at old pages, checking which terms were sending relevant traffic to that page and trying to boost aspects of the page related to any topics that were ranking in the 6-12 area (especially in relation to the types of content Google features in the search results for those terms).

 

[SerpTrek]

Why would you delete it when you are on page 2? You literally are getting long tailed keywords from it that you are ranking for without knowing it. If you look back in your analytics, look at how much search traffic came in the last year or so. Then turn around and optimize for terms that have buyer intent so that page can generate you more revenue.

To focus the link equity (internally and externally) at easier to rank phrases, instead of trying to rank page 1 against DR beasts. So in a nutshell, I am concerned it will be impossible to smash through "authority sites" to get anywhere on page 1.

I think my plan of action will look like this:

• Either, optimize the existing pages for something that it's already ranking (on the exiting URL)
• Or create rankable pages based on related phrases that link up to the "un rankable page" + unlink the "unrankable" page from the home page

 

[Ryuzaki]

It depends on your ultimate goal for the site.

Is your plan to sell it as soon as it's worth it to you? Then sure, re-optimize the article for a term you can rank.

Is your plan to keep it forever and build a monster of a site? Keep the article. You'd be surprised what giant sites you can outrank if they're a general purpose site and you're a site that's specifically about the topic. It'll take time and a lot of page-level and domain-level links, but it can be done.

If you do the second option, just don't focus on the page. Interlink to it when appropriate but just otherwise forget about it. In a year's time, revisit it with some links and update it and try to better do on-page optimization with any tricks you learned. Rinse and repeat every 6 months to a year.

But the danger here is getting obsessed with that page and wasting your resources, time, and energy on it.

The only time these kind of less-specific money terms are worth ranking is when you can do it with a normal amount of effort. Just because they're high volume doesn't mean you'll convert a ton either. The monstrous effort it would take to brute force the rankings now would make the ROI very disappointing. Given time and a lot of work on the rest of your site it can be worth it though.

It's true though what @CCarter is saying. Go into your analytics and check just how much traffic you're getting to the page before you delete/change it. Use one of the many tools available to determine what keywords it's ranking for. It might surprise you.