Cleaning Up A Site With Irrelevant Catagories & Content

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Hello Everyone,

I realize there is some training and questions concerning this topic. I even have questions about this topic. I do know some steps to take in cleaning up a site but I don't know all of them. LOL!

The Beginning Stages

In the beginning I had a different mind set then I do now. I would get kind of weary and down that I wasn't accomplishing things like I thought I should be. I know people get down or frustrated when they put in hard work and no, let's be honest here- No MONEY is coming in for their efforts.

So, maybe in the beginning, you may have put a category and some post that wasn't relevant to your niche. Then you might have been like, nothing is happening so I'm going to just add more stuff to my site.

Guess what? The post that are irrelevant to your niche but now they are indexed by Google. I know it's not good to delete a post especially if it is indexed because it brings people to your site. But if they go to your site on an irrelevant post, wouldn't they just leave anyways? Leave it to the mind of impatient and making money to mess things up. The mind should be on helping people.

Irrelevant Category & Post

On one of my sites, I have one irrelevant category and two irrelevant post both of which are indexed by Google. I know if I delete them and someone clicks on them from the search engine, it will give an error code and show nothing which will in return make my site look bad.

Should they be deleted anyways or leave them alone?

If I leave them, What can I do with them? Maybe I can turn the two irrelevant post into pages of some kind. Would that make a difference? I could get them off my main menu if I did that, right?

I'm just putting things out here, so we can discuss this as a community and possibly help others a long the way, so they don't make the same mistakes as I have.

The answer is probably so simple but sometimes I just make things more complicated than they really are.

Pictures On Site Also Indexed

I have a lot of pictures indexed as well. Is this good or bad? You click on them and it just goes to the picture on my website and not to the post. Is there something I can do there?

Final Thoughts

I hope WA really chimes in on this because I know some people have these struggles and mishaps as I have and we need help. I hope this really helps somebody as these things are being discussed and different points of view are being established.

There is a lot of expertise here within WA!

Please feel free to help, comment, or ask questions. You can believe, someone will address it. Thank you everybody.

Take care

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Recent Comments

19

I know how you feel. I came in blind did all the things I was told in the lessons in the training. Found in later lessons that I was having so much trouble because of the way i was trying to accomplish things on the computer. Thank goodness I have a son that knows computers has been helping me. All I can say is hang in there. I have already asked a lot of questions and someone, out there, always answers me.

Hey, I appreciate your comment. I have a lot cleaned up on the site now. I have more to do but I will get there. Thank you for your kind words. I hope you're doing well.

Take care

I've seen several sites with posts totally unrelated to their niche,and yet they seem to be getting away with it. I don't know the answer, but if they are indexed it is a shame to move them.

Thank you very much for your comment. I appreciate it. Take care

I used to make huge comprehensive sites and so, of course, a lot of things are on scattered topics. It's funny to me to see now how the most popular posts on my simple living website are so unrelated to each other. BUT people find them and seem to benefit, hey, they even buy things through them sometimes.

They are on gas cans, air filters, recycling old computers, fixing a leaky RV roof, vacuum sealing jars, cheap flashlights, and so on.

Good for you on your success. I appreciate your comment. Have a great day.

Take care

Great post! I wish I had all the answers for you but unfornately I am in the same boat.

I can say that the post that you have written which was off topic just leave them as is because I did the same thing in the beginning and battled with removing it.

Anyhow, I decided to leave it and to my surprise I ended up making my first commissions from it. So even irrelevant post can help in some kind of way.

I no longer write irrelevant post now because I have learned a lot more since then.

The images I am not sure how to fix that issue. I have seen this same thing with my site. When I click a link it takes me to the image only so, what I have done is installed the redirection plugin and it seems to work good. Plus its easy.

My caterrgories are the same I need to figure out how to make them more relevant.

The best part about all of this is, we are learning from our mistakes and before success happens you must experience mishaps. You'll also be able to help otgers when this situation comes up.

Either way, yoi are not alone in this, I too am trying to fix many things that I am now realizing need my attention.

Thanks for sharing your experience...

Wow! I really appreciate your comment. It really does help when things like this are discussed. I believe it helps people. I'm really glad you liked it.

You're right, we do learn from our mistakes and we are able to help others along the way who have been through similar trials or errors.

To fix the image thing you can do what Labman showed in the image he shared in his comment below in the sitemap setting.

I will be installing the redirection plugin that you and Labman have recommended for sure.

As long as we work together, we can one another and figure things out. Thanks again.

Take care

Thank you, David. You're right teameork makes the dream work. I will do as you and Labman say with the images, that is an excellent idea. Thanks, for opening up this discussion, it has really helped.

To your continued success...

I wish you well.

My hope is for you to succeed!

Take care

Thank you, David!

I wish you all the success too...

You can certainly change the categories to make them more relevant.

I would recommend that you write new posts and leave the old ones. If you like you can set a redirect from the old post to a new URL that you write that is more relevant. If you do this, the visitors clicking on the old link will end up on the new page/post. As for images that are indexed, I would adjust your settings in the All In One SEO sitemap to not index images or categories ( these are checkboxes in the settings of the sitemap)

Thank you for all the information. I just changed my sitemap settings on both sites.

I will go over the training you gave me in your comment as well. I appreciate your help very much.

Take care

In the redirect tutorial, I would recommend the redirection plugin. It works wonderfully and is easy to use.

OK. Thank you

Yeah I think going back and tidying is always good. I have only been here a month, but I made lots of mistakes in my earlier posts and it wasn't until I have got later in the training and learned more skills that I can look back at my earlier posts and see they need improving.

I forget about images, and bing/yahoo search showed me that I hadn't given them all an alt text, and was therefore losing out on valuable SEO. I would never have known that in my first few weeks!

Many Thanks this post has really helped.

Hello there, thanks for reading and thanks for commenting. I appreciate your input. We all have a lot to learn. That's what we're here for, to help one another.

I started following you and looking forward to seeing what you accomplish.

Take care

Thanks David, I look forward to following your progress and posts too! Many Thanks

Absolutely!

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