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What is an Orphan Page and Why It Matters for SEO
SEO
What is an Orphan Page?
In the world of SEO, not all web pages are created equal. Some pages, despite being live and crawlable, are simply forgotten—they’re called orphan pages. An orphan page is a page on your website that is not linked to from any other page on the site. That means users can’t naturally navigate to it, and search engine bots may overlook it completely.
Imagine having a beautiful storefront that nobody can find because it’s not listed on the mall directory—that’s exactly what an orphan page is like.
Why Do Orphan Pages Exist?
Orphan pages can happen unintentionally due to a variety of reasons, such as:
- Site redesigns that leave old URLs behind
- Landing pages created for a campaign, then forgotten
- Blog posts published but not linked from the main blog list
- Product pages for discontinued items
- Pages manually uploaded but not connected to the site navigation
The SEO Impact of Orphan Pages
Orphan pages can quietly hurt your SEO efforts in multiple ways:
1. Crawling and Indexing Issues
Search engines use internal links to discover and understand your site structure. If a page isn’t linked from anywhere, bots may never find or index it, which means it won’t show up in search results.
2. No Link Equity
When other pages link to a page, they pass value (also known as link juice). Orphan pages don’t receive any of this value, which means their potential to rank is severely limited.
3. Wasted Crawl Budget
Search engines allocate a limited number of pages to crawl per site. Orphan pages can waste crawl budget, especially if they have no SEO value.
4. Poor User Experience
If users can’t navigate to a page through menus or internal links, they’ll likely never see it. That can mean missed conversions, lower engagement, and higher bounce rates.
How to Find Orphan Pages on Your Website
Here are some popular tools to help you identify orphan pages:
- Google Analytics: Look for pages with traffic but no referrer.
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider: Crawl your site and compare results with your sitemap.
- Ahrefs/Sitebulb/SEMrush: These tools offer orphan page detection as part of their site audit reports.
Tip: Always compare your XML sitemap against crawled URLs. Orphan pages often appear in your sitemap but not in the crawl.
How to Fix Orphan Pages
Once you’ve found orphan pages, here’s what you can do:
- Add Internal Links
Link to the orphan page from relevant content. For example, a forgotten blog post about SEO tools can be linked from your “SEO Tips” guide. - Update Navigation or Categories
If the page is still relevant, consider adding it to your main navigation, sidebar, or footer menus. - Redirect or Remove
If the page is outdated or no longer useful, use a 301 redirect to point it to a relevant live page—or remove it entirely. - Submit to Google
If you’ve fixed the page and want Google to re-crawl it, use the URL Inspection Tool in Google Search Console to request indexing.
Frequently Asked Questions – Orphan Pages
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is an orphan page? | An orphan page is a webpage that is not linked to from any other page on the same website. This makes it difficult for both users and search engines to discover the page. |
| Why are orphan pages bad for SEO? | Orphan pages can hurt your SEO by preventing search engines from indexing them, reducing internal link equity, and creating a poor user experience. |
| How do I find orphan pages on my website? | You can find orphan pages using tools like Google Analytics, Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, SEMrush, or by comparing your XML sitemap with a full site crawl. |
| How do I fix orphan pages? | Add relevant internal links, include them in your navigation or sitemap, or redirect/remove them if they’re outdated or unnecessary. |
| Can Google index orphan pages? | Sometimes—if the page is submitted via sitemap or has backlinks. However, pages not linked internally are less likely to be crawled or ranked. |
| Are all orphan pages bad? | Not necessarily. Some pages (like private landing pages) are intentionally orphaned for specific campaigns. But in general, orphan pages reduce site performance if unmanaged. |
| Should I delete orphan pages? | Only if they serve no SEO or user purpose. Otherwise, it’s better to link them properly or redirect them to a relevant page. |
Final Thoughts
Orphan pages are like lost opportunities—valuable content left in the shadows. By identifying and fixing orphan pages, you can enhance your site’s structure, improve crawlability, and give your SEO rankings a healthy boost.
If you’re not regularly auditing for orphan pages, you could be sitting on hidden content gold. Take the time to reconnect your content—and watch your visibility grow.
At Coderobotics, we specialize in SEO audits and website optimization. Get in touch today and let us help you unlock your site’s full potential.
This entry was posted by Sasi and tagged in Orphan Pages in SEO
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