What Are Orphan Pages? A Complete SEO Guide

An orphan page is a webpage on your site that has no internal links pointing to it from other pages on your website. Think of them as backdoor pages that you might have created but forgot to add a relation. For on-page SEO, internal linking is a crucial part of the process, and if you have missed linking a page, it will not be easily discoverable or regarded as important.

These pages can still be found by search engines if they’re included in your sitemap or if external websites link to them. However, visitors navigating through your website naturally won’t stumble upon these pages because there’s no clear path leading to them.

How Do Orphan Pages Happen?

Orphan pages don’t usually appear intentionally. They typically occur when:

• Website Restructuring: During redesigns or content reorganization, links to certain pages get removed accidentally, leaving those pages isolated.
• Content Updates: When you update navigation menus or remove old blog posts that contained links, some pages may lose their connecting pathways.
• Development Oversights: New pages get created, but developers forget to add them to the main navigation or link them from relevant existing content.
• Legacy Content: Older pages that were once linked may become orphaned as your site evolves and content gets updated or removed.

Why Orphan Pages Hurt Your SEO

Orphan pages create several problems for your website’s search engine optimization:

Poor User Experience

Visitors who land on orphan pages from search results often feel lost. They can’t easily navigate to other relevant content on your site, leading to higher bounce rates and shorter visit durations.

Wasted Crawl Budget

This is not something to be missed, as search engines like Google are continuously optimizing the crawl budget. Google allocates a limited amount of time and resources to crawling your website. When they spend time indexing orphan pages that don’t contribute to your site’s overall structure, it’s an inefficient use of your crawl budget.

Lost Link Authority

Internal links help distribute authority and ranking power throughout your website. Orphan pages can’t receive this valuable link juice from other pages on your site, making them weaker in search rankings.

That is why many search engine optimization services in the UK strongly advise auditing websites for orphan pages because they understand how these isolated pages can significantly impact a site’s overall ranking potential

Missed Conversion Opportunities

If an orphan page contains valuable content or products, visitors might not discover related offerings because no internal links guide them to other relevant pages.

How To Find Orphan Pages On Your Website

Identifying orphan pages requires some detective work, but several tools and methods can help:

Google Analytics Method

1. Go to your Google Analytics account.
2. Navigate to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages.
3. Export the list of all pages that received traffic.
4. Compare this list with pages that appear in your internal link reports.

Crawling Tools

You can also use popular SEO tools like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or Ahrefs to crawl your website and identify pages without internal links. These tools provide detailed reports showing which pages are isolated from your main site structure.

Manual Site Audit

For smaller websites, you can manually check by:

• Reviewing your sitemap.
• Checking each page for internal links.
• Using Google Search Console to see which pages are indexed.
• Looking for pages that appear in search results but aren’t easily accessible through navigation.

How To Fix Orphan Pages

Once you’ve identified orphan pages, you have several options to address them:

Add Internal Links

The most common solution is to create relevant internal links from other pages on your site. Look for natural opportunities to link to the orphan page from:

• Related blog posts or articles.
• Category or product pages.
• Your main navigation menu.
• Footer links.
• Sidebar widgets.

Update Your Navigation

If the orphan page contains valuable content, consider adding it to your main navigation menu or creating a dedicated section where it fits logically.

Redirect Or Remove

For outdated or low-value orphan pages, you might choose to:

• Redirect them to more relevant, current pages using 301 redirects.
• Combine the content with existing pages.
• Remove them entirely if they serve no purpose.

Create Hub Pages

Developing topic-focused hub pages has also proven helpful for fixing orphan pages. This is because these pages make your content look more organized and serve as a central connection point linking to relevant pages.

Best Practices For Preventing Orphan Pages

Preventing orphaned pages is an ongoing process as you create new pages, so there is no one-time fix. Here are some strategies to avoid creating orphan pages:

• Plan Your Site Structure: Before creating new content, think about where it fits in your overall site architecture and how visitors will discover it.
• Regular Site Audits: Conduct monthly or quarterly reviews to identify and fix orphan pages before they become problematic.
• Update Internal Linking: When publishing new content, always include relevant internal links to and from existing pages.
• Maintain Navigation Menus: Regularly review and update your navigation structure to ensure all important pages are accessible.
• Use Categories and Tags: For blogs and content sites, proper categorization helps create automatic internal linking opportunities.

Orphan pages represent missed opportunities for both search engines and users. While they might seem like minor technical SEO issues and all good on the surface level, they can significantly downplay your website’s SEO efforts and user experience.

Remember, SEO success comes from paying attention to these seemingly small details that collectively make a big difference in your website’s performance. Start by identifying any orphan pages on your site today, and take action to connect them back to your main content ecosystem.

Moiz Banoori

Moiz Banoori is a seasoned Digital Marketing professional with over eight years of expertise in content creation and digital journalism. At REDLUMB, he spearheads teams to craft impactful SEO strategies that drive online growth and visibility. With a background in journalism, Moiz leverages his expertise in digital marketing to develop effective strategies that boost online visibility and help clients achieve their goals.