Restructuring an old site.

Marketing & Content Hub Blog, Website & Page Publishing
1

Hi everyone :waving_hand:

I’m currently faced with a website that has hundreds of very thin content pages (most of which don’t drive any traffic) and some of them actually drive the most traffic drive 0 value informational traffic that will never become a customer of this business.

Basically we want to take the entire thing apart and put it back together so that it’s focused on high-value commercial intent keyword phrases. It’s a diving center on Koh Samui (one of the perks of working with them is that I get some free dives :grin:).

What would be the kind of high-level framework that you recommend I go about this? I have my list of target keywords as well as historical data from Search Console for which keywords drive how much traffic for which pages.

I’m thinking to begin with, the target keywords set up the site structure accordingly, and then map that against the current website and the traffic it gets. See where I can consolidate existing content, how to set up redirects, and which content just to prune completely. I’m thinking about getting rid of about 80% of the pages that are currently on that domain because they are very thin content and basically drive no traffic at the same time. I do understand that they contribute to topical authority, so I don’t just want to completely delete them.

As always, any help is much appreciated. I looked if there’s a guide on HubSpot on this topic, but I wasn’t able to find one. If anyone can recommend a good resource that breaks it down step-by-step, that would be great as well.

Thanks,

Rob

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Hi @RKeynes

Love the free dives perk—nice work! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: Your game plan sounds spot-on.

Here’s a quick framework you could follow:

  • Start with keywords → site structure
    Use your commercial-intent keywords to plan pillar pages (your main service areas) and supporting clusters (like FAQ posts, dive tips, gear advice).

  • Audit, consolidate & redirect thoughtfully
    Match existing pages to your new structure using Search Console data. Keep or boost high-value pages, merge similar thin ones, and prune the rest—but 301-redirect anything useful to keep SEO strength.

  • Use HubSpot’s SEO tool to power this
    Its Content Strategy tool helps you explore topics, check search volume and ranking difficulty, and group content into topic clusters with pillar pages and subtopic posts.
    Helpful docs:

  • Set up internal linking smartly
    In HubSpot, attach cluster posts to your pillar page and the tool even shows if a subtopic content lacks a link back—super handy to ensure your structure is SEO-friendly.