ORPHANED PAGE:
Orphan pages are website pages that are not linked to from any other page or section of your site.This means a user cannot access the page without knowing the direct URL. Additionally, these pages can’t be followed from another page by search engine crawlers, which means they are rarely indexed by search engines.
An orphan page is a web page that has no incoming internal links on a website. Essentially,it’s a page that cannot be accessed from any place within the website itself, but it can still be visited via an external backlink or a direct URL. Let’s explore this concept further:
- Deliberate Orphan Pages:
- Some pages intentionally remain orphaned. For example, a guide hosted on a blog might only be accessible from within specific tools or applications, not directly from the main website. These pages are deliberately orphaned and may even be marked as “noindex” to prevent them from ranking on search engines.
- Advertising landing pages can also fall into this category.
- Accidental Orphan Pages:
- Accidental orphan pages require attention. They result from mistakes during site migrations, navigation changes, site redesigns, or when products go out of stock.
- The absence of internal links can harm the discoverability and indexability of these pages.
- Why Are Orphan Pages a Concern:
- Discoverability and Indexability: Google discovers new pages through internal links, external backlinks, and sitemaps. Orphan pages without internal links may never appear in search results.
- Ranking Impact: Orphan pages receive no PageRank from other pages on the website. Even if they acquire quality backlinks, internal links can still improve their link profile.
HOW TO FIX AN ORPHAN PAGES:
To fix an orphan page, you simply need to add a link from a relevent page on your website. Or from a navigation menu, if appropriate. Just make sure you’re not linking to an orphan page from another orphan page.
- Using Ahrefs Site Audit: Ahrefs Site Audit simplifies the process. Create a project for your domain, include all possible URL sources (autodetected sitemaps, imported URLs from analytics tools, etc.), and let Site Audit crawl the pages. It will report any orphan pages.
Remember, linking these orphan pages from your website is the key to ensuring their visibility and proper indexing!
HOW ORPHAN PAGES AFFECT SEO:
- Orphan pages can indeed impact your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts. Let’s explore how they affect your website and what you can do to address them:
- Page Does Not Get Indexed:
- Orphan pages are webpages that lack internal links from other pages on your site. Because of this, search engine crawlers have no paths to follow to reach these pages.
- If a page is orphaned, it may not get crawled or indexed by search engines. Consequently, it might not appear in search results.
- Although search engine crawlers reference your XML sitemap (which lists all pages on your site), relying solely on sitemap crawling isn’t ideal. It’s essential to link to orphan pages directly from relevant pages within your site.
- Poor Search Rankings:
- Even if an orphan page gets crawled and indexed, its rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) can suffer.
- Google’s PageRank algorithm considers inbound links as a ranking factor. Each inbound link acts as a vote for a page’s quality and authority.
- Without internal links, an orphan page won’t receive any link equity from other pages on your site. As a result, it may not rank well and might receive minimal organic traffic.
- How to Fix Orphan Pages:
- To address orphan pages, add a link from a relevant page on your website or from a navigation menu.
- Ensure that you’re not linking an orphan page from another orphan page.
- Once there’s a link from a non-orphan location, the page becomes part of your overall site structure, solving the issue.
HOW TO FIND ORPHAN PAGES ON YOUR SITE:
The easiest way to find orphan pages is to use Semrush’s Site Audit tool. The process of uncovering orphan pages is notoriously tricky. Because if the page is not liked anywhere, it may not be discovered by most SEO Tools or crawlers.
Finding Orphan Pages:
- Use tools like Semrush’s Site Audit to identify orphan pages. These tools can uncover pages that aren’t linked elsewhere.
- Remember that too many orphan pages can negatively impact your SEO efforts, so it’s crucial to address them promptly!
CONCLUSION:
Avoid orphan pages at all costs. If you happen to have orphan pages, we recommend to have orphan pages, we recommend redirecting them to another part of the site or make sure to have a 401(which is a permanent deletion).
