We have a /section/ on our website that has thousands of 'thin content' pages and currently gets about one click per page (if that) and virtually zero sales overall - mostly because the product offering is not very well aligned with customer needs and can be costly.

However, semrush indicates that the section accounts for 85k out of 208k ranking keywords - while 11k of those rankings are Top 10 and 1800 in Top 3.

The pages also have 1360 backlinks - about 1% of the site's total - and of course there will be many tens of thousands of internal links too.

We have mixed views as to whether to remove the vast chunk of the pages - just keeping a core offering, due to thin, almost duplicate content.

But I'm thinking why not just keep them, sitting in the background, minding their own business, and potentially giving us branding in this sector. Especially if we re-enter the sector with a better offering that customers may want to buy we have a ready-made site that would only need tinkering with to fit.

I'm worried that removing the /section/ will have a negative effect on the whole site

Any thoughts either way would be much appreciated.