Introduction
Are some of your web pages out there, doing nothing for your site? If you notice that certain pages aren’t pulling in traffic or showing up in search results, they could be orphan pages. These pages on your site have no internal links pointing to them, making them hard for users and search engines to find.
Orphan pages can pop up during routine site changes or even after content updates. While they may seem harmless, they can actually hurt your SEO efforts. So, how do you deal with them? Let’s explore what orphan pages are, how to find them, and how you can fix them to ensure your entire site works to boost your rankings.
What Are Orphan Pages?
Orphan pages are those hidden corners of your website with no internal links leading to them. In other words, these pages are completely isolated—no other page on your site links to them, so they’re practically invisible to users and search engines unless someone finds them through an external backlink or direct URL.
Orphan pages can appear on your site for several reasons—site migrations, navigation updates, or even content updates gone wrong. Over time, they’re easy to overlook but shouldn’t be ignored. If a page isn’t linked internally, it’s essentially an island, disconnected from the rest of your website. This makes it harder for search engines to crawl and index these pages, which impacts your SEO.
Why Orphan Pages Are Bad for SEO
Let’s discuss why orphan pages are a real problem for your SEO strategy. These pages can seriously affect how your site performs in search results. Here’s why:
Hindering Page Indexation
Orphan pages don’t get internal links, which means search engines like Google can’t easily discover them. If Google doesn’t know they exist, they won’t get indexed, which means no traffic from search engines.
Bad User Experience
If your users can’t find certain pages, they’re missing out on valuable content or resources. Orphan pages are often hidden away, leading to a disjointed user experience and missed opportunities for engagement.
Potential to Harm Rankings
Internal links pass authority, or PageRank, to your pages. Without internal links, orphan pages don’t receive any of this SEO juice, which can hurt their chances of ranking well—even if they have some external backlinks.
Harder to Optimize
Orphan pages are tough to manage and optimize. Since they’re not part of your regular internal linking strategy, you may not even realize they exist, let alone know how they’re performing. This makes them much harder to track, update, or improve over time.
How to Find Orphan Pages
Finding orphan pages isn’t as simple as running a basic site crawl. Since these pages don’t have any internal links, they won’t show up in a typical audit. You’ll need a more strategic approach and the right tools to uncover them.
Run a Full Site Crawl
Start by running a complete crawl of your website using an SEO spider tool. This simulates how search engines explore your site by following all internal links. The issue with orphan pages is they don’t have internal links, so they won’t be caught during this part of the process. But don’t worry—we have more steps to go.
Check Your XML Sitemap
After crawling your site, compare the URLs found in the crawl to those listed in your XML sitemap. Your sitemap should list every page you want indexed. If a page is in the sitemap but didn’t appear in the crawl, there’s a good chance it’s an orphan page.
Integrate Google Analytics and Search Console
To catch more orphan pages, connect your SEO spider tool to Google Analytics and Search Console. These platforms track pages that receive traffic but aren’t necessarily linked internally. By pulling in data from Analytics and Search Console, you can spot URLs that users and search engines are visiting but didn’t show up in your internal link-based crawl.
Analyze Orphan Pages
Once the crawl is complete, use the orphan page filters available in your crawl tool. These filters will show any URLs that were discovered through your sitemap, Google Analytics, or Search Console but weren’t found via internal links. These are your orphan pages.
How You Can Fix Orphan Pages
Once you’ve identified your orphan pages, fixing them is relatively straightforward. But there’s more than one way to handle them, and the best option depends on the role that page plays on your site. Here are a few ways to deal with orphan page:
Add Internal Links
The simplest fix is to add internal links from other relevant pages on your site. Make sure the page fits naturally within your site structure, and don’t link from another orphan page—otherwise, you’re not really solving the problem. If the content is still valuable, integrate it with pages that are already performing well.
Redirect
If the content on the orphan page is outdated or no longer relevant, but there’s a similar, more updated page on your site, you can set up a 301 redirect. This ensures users (and search engines) are sent to the right place, while still preserving any SEO value the orphan page might have.
Noindex
If an orphan page isn’t necessary for search engines to index, but you still want it accessible, you can add a noindex tag. This tells search engines not to include the page in their index, but it still allows users with a direct link to access it.
Remove the Page
Sometimes, the best option is to remove the page entirely, especially if the content is outdated or irrelevant. Just be careful with this one—removing a page without setting up proper redirects can lead to 404 errors and hurt your site’s user experience.
Consolidate Content
If your orphan page has useful information, but it doesn’t need to stand alone, consider consolidating it with another related page. This way, you keep the valuable content but avoid having a page isolated from the rest of your site.
Monitoring for New Orphan Pages
It’s important to realize that orphan pages aren’t just a one-time issue. As you update your site, publish new content, or move things around, new orphan page can pop up without you realizing it. That’s why it’s crucial to set up regular monitoring.
You should schedule routine crawls of your site to check for new orphan page. By setting up a recurring audit—whether it’s weekly, monthly, or another frequency that fits your needs—you can catch these pages before they start causing SEO problems like lower rankings or indexing issues. Regular monitoring keeps your site’s structure healthy and ensures that all your content is working to improve your search rankings.
Conclusion
Orphan pages might seem insignificant at first glance, but they play a crucial role in the overall health of your website and its performance in search engines. By identifying, fixing, and monitoring these pages, you can improve your SEO effectiveness and enhance the user experience on your site.
Taking a proactive approach to your website’s structure can lead to higher visibility in search results, increased traffic, and ultimately more conversions. However, navigating the complexities of SEO and content strategy can be daunting. That’s where Kiri Visual comes in. Our team of experts specializes in SEO and content strategies tailored to your specific needs, ensuring your website is optimized for both search engines and users. Don’t let orphan page hold back your site’s potential—reach out to us today, and let’s take your online presence to the next level!
FAQs
What is an orphan page?An orphan page is a web page on your site that doesn’t have any internal links pointing to it. This means both users and search engines can’t easily find it unless they come across it via an external link or direct URL.
How do you find orphan pages on a website?To find orphan pages, you’ll need to use an SEO crawler to perform a site audit. Start by crawling your site to identify pages with no internal links. Then, compare these results with your sitemap and analytics data to spot discrepancies. These unlinked pages are likely orphans. For more details, check out this guide on using search engine crawlers.
Are orphan pages bad for SEO?Yes, orphan pages can negatively affect your SEO. Since they aren’t linked internally, search engines may not discover or index them, meaning they won’t rank or attract traffic. Additionally, orphan pages don’t receive any PageRank from internal links, which can limit their potential to rank well, even if they have external backlinks.
How do you fix orphan pages?The most straightforward fix is to add internal links from relevant pages on your site. You can also consider redirecting, noindexing, or removing the orphan pages, depending on their content and value. Consolidating similar content is another effective strategy to ensure users and search engines can find and access it.
How often should I check for orphan pages?Regular audits should be part of your ongoing SEO strategy. Depending on the frequency of updates to your site, you might check for orphan pages weekly, monthly, or quarterly to ensure a healthy internal linking structure.