How cutting 80% of its content affected Pornhub's organic performance

In December 2020, around mid-month, Pornhub (a MindGeek company) removed millions of videos from its website, slashing its available content dramatically. This move wasn't motivated by SEO considerations but stemmed from legal pressures. You can read more about the reasons [here].

This post was initially published in January 2021, shortly after the content removal. Given the rarity and significance of this event, I revisited the data one year later to update the analysis. You’ll find the 2022 update toward the end of this post.

The Immediate Question: Did Removing 80% of Content Hurt Pornhub?

For most websites, a drastic reduction in content would spell disaster. Yet, studies show that strategic content pruning can have positive impacts. One month post-removal, I analyzed the data to assess whether Pornhub’s traffic and rankings suffered.

Key Caveats:

• This analysis relies on third-party tools, offering objectivity but limited by lack of direct access to Pornhub’s data.
• It’s unclear how many of the removed videos were indexed by Google and driving traffic.
• For this analysis, I focused on www.pornhub.com (English version) and the U.S. market.

Additionally, a May 2021 update is included to assess any continued trends or shifts in competitor performance.

The Scale of the Content Removal

To understand the magnitude of the content reduction: 80% of 10,000,000 videos is vastly different from 80% of 100. Using a combination of Wayback Machine data and live site analysis, I estimate Pornhub removed approximately 10.8 million videos (from 13.7 million down to 2.95 million) across 196 top-level categories.

Third-Party Keyword Data: A Closer Look

From December 2020 to January 2021, the total number of keywords associated with Pornhub dropped. January’s figure of 3.1 million keywords was significantly lower than November 2020’s peak. This drop represents the lowest number of video-related keywords since 2014.

Estimated Traffic Impact

Predictably, the reduction in ranking keywords led to a decline in estimated traffic. Reviewing data over the past 12 months reveals that traffic has steadily decreased since the content removal, aside from a brief spike in May 2021.

May 2021 Update

The May 4th Google algorithm update affected numerous niches, including the adult industry. As societal attitudes toward adult content evolved, so did search behavior. Terms once exclusive to adult sites began appearing in broader contexts.

Despite the removal of millions of videos, Pornhub maintained its rankings for core categories but suffered overall traffic and ranking declines. This raises the question: Could this impact have been mitigated?

What Could Have Been Done Differently?

When reviewing 27,727 ranking video URLs from November 2020, I noticed that removed content still returned a 200 status code, with page titles and metadata changed to "Video Disabled." This approach likely signaled low-value content to Google, contributing to ranking declines.

A more effective strategy might have included:

• Redirecting removed URLs to a holding page with a 451 status code.
• Monitoring these URLs via an XML sitemap to track index status and reinstatement of content.
• Reporting progress in Google Search Console to address business-level concerns.

Competitor Insights: January 2022 Update

One year later, let’s examine the data:

Key Metrics:

• Estimated Monthly Traffic: Increased slightly from 1.12 billion (Jan 2021) to 1.13 billion (Jan 2022).
• Total Ranking Keywords: Declined from 13.8 million to 11.7 million.

While traffic improved, the drop in ranking keywords isn’t alarming for a massive site like Pornhub, which often ranks for less relevant terms. Interestingly, June 2021 saw a secondary decline, coinciding with Google’s Core and Spam updates. Possible reasons include:

• Negative user experience signals from "Video Disabled" pages.
• Competitors capitalizing on the gaps left by Pornhub.

Competitor Performance

Organic search visibility data shows that competitors like XNXX have closed the gap, likely benefiting from Pornhub’s de-optimizations and Google’s updates.

Content Recovery and Future Outlook

Since the initial removal, Pornhub has been gradually adding videos. By July 2021, the site was growing by ~50,000 videos per month, reaching an estimated 3.55 million videos by January 2022. Monitoring these trends will shed light on whether Pornhub can fully recover its lost rankings and traffic.

Conclusion

The data shows that Pornhub’s traffic and rankings were indeed impacted by the content removal, but the long-term effects may be mitigated by strategic content reintroduction. Competitors have capitalized on Pornhub’s temporary setbacks, signaling the importance of maintaining a dynamic SEO strategy in a competitive industry.