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SEO + Content Pruning

Case Study · SEO + Content Pruning

Same website. Half the content. 8x the winning pages.

This content pruning case study from Toronto shows how a film festival website went from 435 bloated pages to 230 focused ones, and grew from 4 to 32 pages earning 100+ organic clicks a month. Six months of disciplined work, and every number below comes straight from Google Search Console.

Client
Toronto film festival
Industry
Arts, Culture & Events
Services
Content Pruning, Semantic SEO
Timeline
6 months
The Challenge

435 pages. Only 4 doing any work.

Every year, this film festival draws creatives, critics, and industry leaders into Toronto’s cultural scene. Online, the story was different. The website had grown to 435 indexed pages, and almost none of them earned their place. Blogs were long but unstructured, pages didn’t match search intent, and the sheer bulk was diluting the site’s topical authority.

When the festival team came to us in September 2024, they weren’t asking for more page views. They wanted visibility, credibility, and performance.

  • → 340 pages earning zero organic clicks
  • → 91 pages scraping 1 to 100 clicks
  • → Just 4 pages with any real traction
  • → Content produced for volume, not value
  • → Topical authority diluted across the site
“
We’ve already invested so much in our content. Are you saying we have to delete it?
FF
The festival’s leadership team
Our first call, September 2024
The Strategy

Prune first. Then build deeper.

Our answer was yes. Growth here didn’t come from adding more. It came from having the discipline to remove what no longer served users, then rebuilding what remained around intent.

1
Audit every page against real data
We mapped all 435 pages in Google Search Console: clicks, impressions, positions, and the intent behind each one. The data made the case for us. More than three quarters of the site earned zero clicks.
2
Prune with purpose
Low-value pages were removed, de-indexed, or consolidated into stronger ones. Half the site was de-indexed in the first phase alone, taking the festival from 435 pages to a focused 230.
3
Rebuild the content ecosystem
Fewer pages, deeper coverage. Topic clusters and intent mapping replaced random publishing, and every rebuilt page followed a strict framework: logical H1 to H4 structure, original images with descriptive alt text, strategic internal and external linking, FAQ sections built from People Also Ask, stat blocks, and reference lists to strengthen E-E-A-T. The guiding rule: write as if a filmmaker is searching for answers and Google is overhearing the conversation.
4
Re-rank the almost-winners
After 30 days we reviewed everything ranking in positions 4 to 15. Those pages weren’t failing, they were almost winning. We added fresh FAQs from trending questions, updated stats, contextual depth from competing pages, and a second wave of internal links. That step alone pushed multiple pages into the top 5.
5
Keep optimizing on live search behaviour
Rankings aren’t a one-time event. We kept tuning pages against real-time search behaviour so wins compounded instead of decaying.
The Results

Half the pages. Multiples of the performance.

8x
Pages earning 100+ clicks a month, from 4 to 32
340 → 95
Zero-click pages after pruning
0 → 4
Pages earning 1,001 to 5,000 clicks a month
435 → 230
Total indexed pages, 205 removed

All figures from Google Search Console, comparing the pre-strategy baseline with 6 months post-implementation.

The Proof

Straight from the dashboards.

A line graph shows sharp increases in both website traffic and organic keyword rankings after years of minimal activity. The top chart tracks traffic; the bottom chart tracks organic keyword positions.
SEMrush: traffic and organic keyword rankings climbing sharply after years of flat performance.

Before vs after, 6-month comparison

SEO metric Before strategy After strategy (6 months)
Total indexed pages 435 pages 230 pages
Pages with 0 organic clicks 340 pages 95 pages
Pages with 1 to 100 clicks 91 pages 99 pages
Pages with 101 to 1,000 clicks 4 pages 32 pages
Pages with 1,001 to 5,000 clicks 0 pages 4 pages
Content approach High volume, low intent alignment Focused volume, intent-aligned
Primary SEO action Publishing new pages Pruning, consolidation, re-optimization

Data source: Google Search Console, page-level organic clicks.

Why It Worked

Depth beats breadth.

Google rewards topical depth over raw page counts, and readers reward clarity over noise. By cutting what didn’t serve users, the remaining pages inherited the site’s full authority instead of splitting it 435 ways.

The fastest wins came from pages already sitting in positions 4 to 15. They didn’t need rescuing, they needed finishing: a sharper answer, a fresher stat, one more internal link.

“Think of your website like a film lineup. You wouldn’t showcase every submission just because it exists. You’d curate what moves people.” That’s how we pitched pruning to a hesitant client, and it’s how the strategy played out. In filmmaking, every great story has a moment where something is left behind. In SEO, that moment is content pruning.

Want the full narrative version? Read the complete content pruning story.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions.

Why did deleting content improve SEO performance?+
Content pruning removes thin, outdated, or irrelevant pages that dilute a site’s topical authority. With only valuable, search-aligned content left, Google reads your expertise more clearly, and rankings consolidate around the pages that deserve them.
How long does it take to see SEO results after content optimization?+
Most sites see ranking improvements within 30 to 60 days and major wins within 3 to 6 months. This Toronto film festival grew from 4 to 32 pages earning 100+ monthly clicks in six months.
Is deleting half my website risky for SEO?+
Not when it’s done correctly. You’re not deleting good content; you’re removing what drags performance down. Google rewards clarity and focus, and for many small businesses pruning is the fastest way to recover visibility.
Can small businesses compete with big brands in SEO?+
Yes. With the right content structure, topical authority, and strategic pruning, small businesses can outrank much larger websites, especially in Toronto’s local search results.
How does Digital 6ix approach content strategy differently?+
We combine technical SEO, semantic content strategy, and real-time optimization. Instead of publishing random blogs, we build content ecosystems that Google trusts and audiences actually use, designed for Toronto businesses that want predictable, long-term growth.
Is semantic SEO better than traditional keyword SEO?+
Yes, especially after Google’s recent updates. Semantic SEO focuses on meaning, context, and topic depth instead of keyword density. It’s why the rebuilt festival content outperformed hundreds of legacy posts.

Publishing content that Google ignores?

Let’s look at what your website is really trying to say. Book a free 30 minute call and we’ll tell you exactly what we’d prune, what we’d keep, and what we’d rebuild first.

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