CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking
by Mia Sato from The Verge - All Posts on (#6DPXN)
Image: Garret Beard / The Verge Technology news outlet CNET has deleted thousands of older articles from its site, telling staff the deletions will improve its Google Search ranking, according to an internal memo. The news was first reported by Gizmodo.
Gizmodo reports that, since July, thousands of articles have been removed from CNET. In the memo, CNET says that so-called content pruning sends a signal to Google that says CNET is fresh, relevant and worthy of being placed higher than our competitors in search results." Stories slated to be deprecated" are archived using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, and authors are alerted at least 10 days in advance, according to the memo.
Removing content from the site is not a decision we take lightly. Our teams...