Should I blow up our subdomain?

[yatesandcojewelers]

Hey folks,

Several years ago we created a couple subdomains (ie, NEWS.URL.COM) and the posts that we put on this subdomain were very full of keyword anchor text links. Each post sometimes had 4-5.

We haven't posted any new content on this subdomain for 3 years.   After getting hit with manual "linking" penalty, we disavowed tons of links.  But left the links on the subdomains alone.

They really aren't providing any traffic and the content is poor, and not written by me.

Do you think having these links is hindering our ranking efforts?

I think I should just blow up this subdomain and get rid of it and all the keyword anchor links. Thoughts?

Thanks

ron

Thoughts?

[Chris.Menke]

I'd vote for blowing it up.  The links aren't helping your domain and if the content's poor quality and not getting any traffic, why keep it around?

[yatesandcojewelers]

Thank you Chris!

[jesse-landry]

I agree with Chris. Ask yourself this: Would my customers/visitors ever want to visit these pages and do they offer any value to the target audience?

If the answer is no, nuke it. That should be the way we all decide how to do anything in a post-Penguin/Panda world.

[ChristopherGlaeser]

They really aren't providing any traffic and the content is poor, and not written by me.

I generally answer these questions by thinking about the user experience.  I would delete anything from the site that does not provide a good user experience.  Google devotes considerable resources to determine which sites provide a good user experience and we can assume they will continue to get better at this in the future.

Best,
Christopher