Start with the migration risk, not the spreadsheet
A 120-page service site can hide dozens of near-duplicate location pages, outdated offers, and orphaned FAQs. The migration risk is not the number of URLs; it is carrying weak pages into a new structure where they compete for the same query. Slimking gives the team a repeatable way to classify each URL before redirects are written.
On a recent electrical contractor site, three Liverpool pages repeated the same emergency call-out text with only the postcode changed. The cause was years of local SEO edits without a page inventory. The solution was a slimking pass that grouped those URLs by intent, kept one strong page, and merged the rest into it.
Build the slimking inventory from crawl and analytics
Export every indexable URL with status code, title, word count, internal links, organic entrances, and conversions. Add a column for page owner. A page with 90 words and zero entrances is a removal candidate; a page with 600 words, three internal links, and six enquiries is a keep. The slimking label should be decided by evidence, not by how recently someone edited the page.
Use a simple set of labels: keep, update, merge, redirect, remove. Keep the list short enough that a content editor can apply it without a meeting. For ambiguous pages, record the query and the next action. The takeaway is that slimking works when the inventory is boring, consistent, and tied to business outcomes.
Apply the four-page test before deleting anything
Before removing a URL, check four things: organic entrances over twelve months, internal links from live pages, backlinks from external domains, and whether the page appears in paid or email campaigns. A page with no traffic but twelve internal links needs a redirect and link update, not a silent 404. The cause of most migration losses is treating low traffic as low value.
For a local service page, compare the page against its closest sibling. If the content overlaps by more than 70 percent and the weaker page has no unique enquiries, merge it. If the weaker page has a distinct service or suburb, update it instead. The solution is a decision rule that protects useful distinctions while cutting duplication.
Write redirects and QA as one slimking step
Every removed or merged URL needs a destination that matches intent. A removed boilerplate page can go to the parent service page; a removed location page should go to the nearest relevant location or service page. Build the redirect map in the same sheet as the slimking labels, then test a sample of twenty URLs in staging. Check status codes, canonical tags, sitemap entries, and internal links.
For a quick external reference on the workflow, the slimking page at slimking can be used as a starting point, but the site’s own analytics should drive final decisions. The result is a smaller, clearer URL set that is easier to migrate, easier to maintain, and less likely to split authority across near-duplicate pages.