Deleting 60% of pages raised total commission 19%

Deleting 60% of pages raised total commission 19%
A site had 480 thin product pages averaging 9 sessions/month each. The long tail diluted crawl budget and brand trust.
They pruned to the top 190 pages and redirected the rest. n=site-wide, 120-day before/after.
— Sessions: -8% (expected, the tail was tiny)
— Order rate: 2.6% to 3.4%
— Total commission: +19%
The surviving pages got more internal link equity and ranked higher for the queries that actually convert.
So what: 300 near-dead pages don't add revenue, they dilute it. Consolidation can lift earnings while cutting traffic — judge on commission, not pageviews.