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What are Orphan Pages?
Orphan pages are URLs on your website that lack internal links from other pages within your site. This isolation makes them difficult for both users and search engines to discover and access. Orphan pages have a properly resolving (200 status code) URL but are not discoverable through your site’s normal navigation and internal linking structure.
In terms of SEO, orphan pages pose several challenges:
- Reduced Discoverability: Search engines rely on internal links to find and index pages. Without these links, orphan pages may be overlooked or poorly ranked.
- Lower Page Authority: Internal links help distribute page authority across a website. Orphan pages miss out on this benefit, potentially weakening their SEO performance.
- Poor User Experience: Users cannot navigate to orphan pages through normal site browsing, leading to a disjointed user experience and missed opportunities for engagement and conversions.
Why are Orphan Pages Important in SEO?
Orphan pages can significantly hinder your website’s SEO performance by reducing overall site structure quality and limiting the flow of link equity, on top of the direct performance impact to the orphaned URL not being easily accessible. They can also negatively affect SEO signals related to site navigation and content organization.
Addressing orphan pages will improve site structure, better distribute link equity, and increase visibility for valuable content. This often results in higher rankings, increased organic traffic, and a more cohesive user experience. By integrating orphan pages into your site’s link structure, you enhance overall navigation and strengthen SEO signals.
Ignoring orphan pages may result in missed SEO opportunities, wasted content efforts, and an incomplete site structure that search engines may view negatively. This can lead to lower domain authority and reduced overall search performance. Additionally, valuable content may go unindexed or receive less visibility in search results.
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Common Orphan Page Issues & How to Resolve Them
Unlinked Blog Posts
Blog posts created without proper internal linking can become isolated, reducing their visibility and SEO impact. This is common on websites that lack the proper category and tag taxonomies, breadcrumb links, and pagination within article templates.
Solution: Conduct a content audit to identify unlinked posts. Implement a strategic internal linking plan, adding any missing navigational link elements as well as contextual links from relevant existing content to these orphaned posts. Consider creating topic clusters or pillar pages to improve content organization and linking.
Disconnected Product Pages
E-commerce sites often have product pages that aren’t properly linked from category pages or related products sections, leading to poor discoverability.
Solution: Review your site’s product hierarchy and ensure all product pages are linked from relevant category pages. Implement related products sections and improve your site’s navigation structure to include links to all product pages.
Legacy Content Isolation
As websites evolve, older content may lose its internal links, becoming orphaned over time. This is especially common when different sections of a website are operating on different CMS platforms.
Solution: Regularly audit your site’s content, paying special attention to older pages. Update internal linking strategies to incorporate legacy content where relevant. Consider creating archive pages or content hubs to maintain links to older, still-valuable content.
New Page Integration Failures
Newly created pages may not be properly integrated into the existing site structure, leading to immediate orphaning.
Solution: Establish a content publication process that includes steps for internal linking. Whenever new content is created, identify relevant existing pages to link from and update those pages accordingly. Consider using tools or plugins that suggest internal linking opportunities.
How to Monitor for Orphan Pages
To maintain website health and prevent orphan pages:
- Compile all of your URLs discovered in analytics platforms, sitemaps, etc. and compare them against URLs found by SEO crawling tools such as Screaming Frog. Any URLs found in tools but not by a crawl are likely orphaned pages. Regularly audit your site structure and identify pages without internal links.
- Analyze server logs to identify pages receiving direct or external traffic but lacking internal links.
- Monitor Google Search Console for sudden drops in indexed pages, which may indicate orphaning issues.
- Implement a regular content audit process to ensure all pages remain properly linked within your site structure.
Establishing these monitoring practices can be time consuming and difficult for some in-house teams. Our Website Health Scan can help you get a pulse on your website’s technical health, including identifying any orphaned pages.
By consistently monitoring and addressing orphan pages, you can improve your website’s SEO performance, user experience, and overall effectiveness in driving organic traffic and conversions. Remember to either integrate valuable orphan pages into your site’s link structure or remove them if they’re no longer relevant, ultimately enhancing overall navigation and strengthening SEO signals.
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