When to Archive vs. Delete Page Groups

As your platform grows, outdated content creates noise in Search, confuses teams, and undermines trust in your platform. Knowing when to archive vs. delete helps you maintain a clean, trustworthy platform without accidentally losing valuable information.

🎯 Who this article is for: Platform admins, page group owners, and editors responsible for keeping knowledge accurate, searchable, and up-to-date.

1. Before you begin: Roles and permissions

Archiving and deleting page groups affects platform-wide knowledge visibility and governance. Make sure you understand your role before taking action.

• Platform admins: Can archive, restore, and permanently delete page groups from Admin Settings → Page Groups.

Non-admins: Can archive page groups but cannot restore or permanently delete them. Before archiving, confirm the content is no longer used or needed. For permanent removal, coordinate with a platform admin to ensure deletion is intentional and no data is lost accidentally.

2. Quick guide: Archive or delete?

3. Understanding the difference

Archiving hides a page group and its pages from all users, including owners. Content no longer appears in Search, navigation, future reporting in analytics, or is viewable through bookmarks and links. Only admins can restore archived page groups from the Admin Settings. 

Deleting permanently removes the page group and all its pages from your platform. Like archiving, content disappears from Search, navigation, analytics, bookmarks, and links. However, deletion is permanent and cannot be undone. The content is fully removed from Happeo, including from the Admin Panel.

💡 Why proper lifecycle management matters: Regular archiving and deletion keeps your platform focused on what’s current. This improves search quality, reduces distractions from outdated content, and helps teams find what they need—leading to less time searching, and more time doing.

4. When to archive page groups

Archiving is the right choice when you need flexibility or aren't certain about permanently removing content:

• Compliance and retention requirements: Your organization must retain records for legal, audit, or regulatory purposes for a specific timeframe.
• Time-based content: Annual reports, quarterly planning pages, or event-specific content that may serve as reference for future cycles.
• Uncertain lifecycle status: You're not sure if teams will need the content again, or stakeholders haven't confirmed the page group is obsolete.
• Content under review: You're consolidating or restructuring and need time to evaluate what should be preserved, moved, or deleted.
• Creating a safe review period: You want to hide content from users while monitoring whether anyone requests its return before committing to deletion.

🔎 Refer to Archive and Restore Pages and Page Groups for more information.

5. When to delete page groups

Deleting a page group is an irreversible action and should be treated as a deliberate lifecycle decision.

• Content has reached the end of its lifecycle with no future value: Projects are complete with outcomes documented elsewhere, initiatives have been discontinued, or information no longer supports current work.
• You've confirmed no dependencies exist: No channels, other pages, onboarding flows, or recurring communications rely on content within the page group.
• Information is obsolete, duplicate, or replaced by newer content: Teams have been reorganized and old structures create confusion, or duplicate page groups exist after consolidating to a single authoritative source.
• You've completed a review period with no restoration requests: The page group has been archived for your set timeframe (e.g. 30-90 days) and no team has asked for access.

🔎 Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone. Before deleting, review the preparation checklist in Delete a Page or Page Group.

6. What happens when you archive vs. delete a page group

Archiving hides the page group from all users while preserving the ability to restore it later through the Admin Settings. Deleting permanently removes the page group and all its content with no recovery option.

For complete technical details on what each action does to your links and platform visibility, see: 

• Archive a Page or Page Group
• Delete a Page or Page Group

7. Recommended workflow: Archive first, delete later

A staged approach reduces risk while still achieving governance benefits.

Step 1: Confirm the page group is ready for archiving

Before archiving, verify that the content meets the criteria outlined in section 3 above. Pay special attention to:

• Confirming with page group owners and stakeholders.
• Checking for dependencies (channels, other pages, onboarding flows).
• Moving any unique or valuable content to authoritative page groups.
• Documenting your decision and reason for archiving.

💡 Tip for distributed or cross-functional teams: If a page group is used by multiple departments or locations, ensure all relevant owners and stakeholders are consulted before archiving. Document who approved the decision and why to prevent confusion later.

Step 2: Archive and communicate

• Archive through Admin Settings → Page Groups.
• Notify affected teams that content is no longer accessible.
• Set a review period (e.g. 30–90 days).

Step 3: Monitor for restoration requests

During your review period, track whether anyone requests access to the archived content. If requests come in, evaluate whether to restore the page group or redirect users to updated content elsewhere.

Step 4: Delete if confirmed obsolete

If no restoration requests arrive during your review period:

• Proceed with deletion.
• Notify relevant teams that content has been permanently removed.
• Document the deletion for governance records.

This staged approach helps ensure content has genuinely reached the end of its lifecycle before it’s permanently removed.

8. After deletion: Ongoing lifecycle best practices

Deleting a page group is part of maintaining a well-governed platform over time. Consistent lifecycle practices after deletion help teams stay aligned, prevent confusion, and keep your platform manageable as it scales—so it remains a clear source of truth rather than a cluttered archive.

Consider scheduling quarterly or biannual reviews of archived page groups to confirm what should be deleted vs. restored. Regular audits help you catch content that's been archived but forgotten, ensure compliance with retention policies, and prevent your archive from becoming an unmanaged backlog.

For guidance on what to do after deleting a page group, including documentation, communication, and long-term governance considerations, see Delete a Page or Page Group and review the Lifecycle best practices section.