Data-Driven Content Pruning at Scale Using APIs and the Screaming Frog SEO Spider – Screaming Frog

01/12/26
Source: Screaming Frog by Mark Porter. Read the original article

TL;DR Summary of Content Pruning: A Data-Driven Framework to Optimise Crawl Budget and Topical Authority

Content pruning involves removing or updating low-value pages to enhance crawl budget and topical authority. A data-driven approach using metrics from tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Ahrefs helps minimize traffic loss risks. Building a structured framework with scoring, flags, and clear actions ensures efficient decision-making and stakeholder buy-in. Visualizing insights with interactive dashboards further supports communication and monitoring post-pruning results.

Optimixed’s Overview: Mastering Content Pruning with Data-Driven Strategies for SEO Success

Understanding Content Pruning and Its Importance

Content pruning is a critical SEO practice aimed at improving website quality by removing, merging, or updating underperforming pages. This process optimizes the crawl budget and strengthens a site’s topical authority, which in turn supports better search rankings.

Challenges in Content Pruning

  • Identifying which pages to prune without causing traffic loss
  • Convincing stakeholders to approve pruning projects
  • Balancing manual review efforts with scalability
  • Maintaining topical authority after removing content

Effective Content Evaluation Methods

Three main approaches:

  • Manual Method: Labor-intensive and subjective, suitable only for small sites.
  • LLM-based & Pythonic Method: Uses advanced AI but requires technical expertise and faces scaling challenges.
  • Data-Driven Method: Combines multi-source data to objectively evaluate content performance, minimize risks, and support stakeholder communication.

Building a Data-Driven Content Pruning Framework

The framework consists of four key stages:

  • Content Evaluation: Collect and analyze data from Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and content metadata to score pages.
  • Execution Strategy: Define actions (prune, update, check, improve, keep) and create a care plan to protect topical authority and traffic.
  • Implementation: Coordinate with technical teams using clear documentation and SEO tickets.
  • Monitoring: Track retained pages for ranking and traffic changes to enable timely recovery strategies.

Key Metrics and Flags Used for Scoring

  • GSC Score: Combines clicks, impressions, and average position for visibility and engagement assessment.
  • GA Score: Measures traffic quality and user engagement using new users, page views, session duration, and bounce rate.
  • Backlink (BL) Score: Evaluates page authority based on URL rating and referring domains.
  • Flags: Identify outdated content, underperforming pages, and opportunity pages based on rank and click-through rates.

Best Practices for Successful Content Pruning

  • Use at least one year of data to account for seasonality.
  • Exclude very recent posts to avoid premature pruning.
  • Remove internal links to pruned pages to avoid wasting crawl budget.
  • Monitor post-pruning impact and adjust strategies accordingly.
  • Visualize data with tools like Looker Studio to enhance stakeholder understanding and approval.

Visualizing and Communicating Results

Interactive dashboards help present key metrics clearly and prioritize insights relevant to different stakeholders. Good design principles, such as readability, logical data hierarchy, and appropriate color use, improve engagement and decision-making.

Conclusion

Content pruning is essential for SEO health and requires a structured, data-driven approach to balance optimization with risk management. By leveraging the outlined framework, scoring techniques, and visualization tools, SEOs can confidently make informed decisions, maintain topical authority, and secure stakeholder support for effective pruning projects.