How do I decide what to prune without nuking traffic?

How do I decide what to prune without nuking traffic?

Q: Everyone says "prune thin content" but how do I actually pick the pages?

A: Short answer: sort by impressions, not clicks. Longer answer, my 5-step pass:

— Pull 12 months of Search Console data, filter to pages with under 5 clicks AND under 50 impressions.
— Check each: does it earn internal links or backlinks? If yes, redirect, don't delete.
— Is it duplicating a stronger page? Merge into that, then 301.
— Pure dead weight with zero links? Set to 410 (gone), not 404.
— Track the URLs in a sheet so you can reverse anything that mattered.

Do it in batches of 20, wait 4 weeks, watch site-wide impressions. If they rise, keep going.

Anyone want me to go deeper on this? React 👍