Chapter 9 | Content Pruning, Crawl Budget, and Site Maintenance

How Cleaning Up Your Website Can Improve Rankings, Speed, and Case Volume

Most personal injury law firms think SEO is about publishing more. More blogs. More pages. More keywords.

But growth doesn’t always come from addition. Sometimes, it comes from subtraction.

Old blog posts, thin location pages, and unread content don’t build momentum; they slow your site down.

Cleaning up old pages can turn into a competitive advantage.

Why Crawl Budget Matters (and Why Most Firms Ignore It)

Google doesn’t crawl your entire website every time. It sets limits. That’s your crawl budget, the amount of attention Google is willing to give your site.

If it spends that time on outdated press releases or empty location pages, it may never get to the content that deserves to rank.

That’s a missed opportunity.

Older or larger sites feel this the most. But even smaller firms benefit when they streamline their content and refocus Google’s attention.

What Is Content Pruning?

Content pruning is the process of identifying underperforming, irrelevant or outdated content and cleaning it up. Cleaning up content looks like:

• Updating what’s worth keeping
• Merging overlapping pages
• Redirecting old content to stronger pages
• Deleting what no longer adds value

Think of it like a tree. You trim the weak branches so the healthy ones grow stronger.

How to Spot Pages That Need to Go

Tools like Google Analytics, Search Console, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog help identify pages that:

• Haven’t had traffic in six months or more
• Are thin (under 300 words) and not optimized
• Are duplicates or outdated versions of other content
• No longer matter (past events, old bios, etc.)

Then ask:

• Is this page still valuable to someone today?
• Does it bring in traffic or links?
• Does it support our local presence, authority, or conversion goals?
• Is it helping or confusing the user?
• Is it even linked from anywhere else on the site?

What to Do With Low-Value Content

If a page is doing nothing (no traffic, no links, no strategic value), delete it.

If it has a few links or some visibility but is outdated, redirect it to a stronger page.

If you have two or more pages covering the same topic, combine them into one better resource. Then redirect the weaker ones to the new version.

What to Keep (and How to Improve It)

Not every old page is bad. Sometimes, all it needs is a refresh. Improve those pages by:

• Adding internal links
• Fixing formatting for easier reading
• Updating legal references or timelines
• Improving your calls to action
• Swapping in newer visuals or statistics
• Adding fresh FAQs or related links

Making these updates gets Google to take a second look and helps users stay longer and take action.

Don’t Skip Technical Maintenance

While you’re cleaning up content, check in on the rest of your site too.

Your quarterly audit should cover:

• Broken internal and external links
• Redirect chains that slow down your site
• Image size and ALT text
• Sitemap and robots.txt files
• Schema markup
• Directory listings and NAP consistency
• ADA accessibility
• Plugin and theme updates (for WordPress users)

Your website isn’t a brochure. It’s a living business asset. Treat it like one.

Chapter 9 Checklist: Content Pruning + Website Maintenance

• Quarterly audit scheduled
• Underperforming content flagged
• Outdated or duplicate pages removed
• High-potential content refreshed
• 301 redirects used strategically
• Internal links updated
• Crawl budget optimized
• Technical files reviewed and updated
• Schema and ADA standards confirmed
• Broken links fixed
• Ongoing maintenance is assigned to the team

SEO Wins Don’t Always Come From Doing More

Sometimes, your most significant gains come from getting out of your own way.

By trimming the bloat, focusing on what matters, and tightening up your website, you make it easier for Google to rank you and easier for clients to trust what they see.