Best way to remove spammy landing pages?

[BrianAlpert78]

Hey Mozzers,

We recently took over a website for a new client of ours and discovered that their previous webmaster had been using a WordPress plugin to generate 5,000+ mostly duplicated local landing pages. The pages are set up more or less as "Best (service) provided in (city)"

I checked Google Webmaster Tools and it looks like Google is ignoring most of these spammy pages already (about 30 pages out of nearly 6,000 are indexed), but it's not reporting any manual webspam actions.

Should we just delete the landing pages all at once or phase them out a few (hundred) at a time?

Even though the landing pages are mostly garbage, I worry that lopping off over 95% of a site's pages in one fell swoop could have other significant consequences.

Thanks!

[RyanPurkey]

I would fold the deletion of these pages into any other design and content changes you have planned for the site. Also,  301 redirection in place of all the old URLs will minimize any 404s that might have been created otherwise. Spidering software like ScreamingFrog or Xenu can help you spot inbound internal links on the pages.

Ultimately these pages are going to go away, either in terms of design or outright deletion so don't let the rate at which you delete them impede other decisions as you move forward in your work on the site.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Brian,

Good for you for discovering these. The process I would recommend would look like this:

1. Create a strategy for launching a set of new, excellent pages that cover the basics without needing to cover every possible combo as these duplicate/thin pages are likely trying to do.

2. Launch your new pages.

3. Delete the old ones and say, 'good riddance!'