What are Orphan Pages?

What are orphan pages?

Orphan pages are indexable web pages that lack any internal links, meaning there are no direct links to them from other pages on your site. As a result, they exist outside of your website’s internal structure.

Since orphan pages aren’t linked anywhere within the site, they cannot be easily accessed by users navigating through your site. However, they are still discoverable in a few ways. One method is through external referrals, such as links from other websites or newsletters. Another is through organic search if the page ranks for specific queries, or via redirects from other URLs.

While these pages can still be found, it’s a difficult process. Both users and search engines struggle to access them, which can negatively impact your site’s performance. We’ll explore this further below.

Why are orphan pages harmful to SEO?

For most sites, orphan pages are a missed opportunity. Here’s why:

• Orphan pages might not be indexed (anymore)
• Orphan pages can take up a lot of crawl budget
• Orphan pages generally don’t perform well
• Orphan pages can hurt user experience

Orphan pages might not be indexed

If a page no longer has any links directing to it, its page authority will significantly decrease, and search engines may choose to remove it from the index entirely.

Pages that aren’t indexed won’t rank in search results and, as a result, won’t drive any organic traffic.

Orphan pages can take up a lot of crawl budget

A large number of low-value orphan pages can consume valuable crawl budget that would be better spent on more important pages or fresh content. As a result, these orphan pages may be hindering your site’s overall SEO performance.

Orphan pages don’t perform well

Even if orphan pages are discovered and indexed by search engines, they typically don’t perform well.

Links convey authority, relevance, and quality to search engines. Without internal links, orphan pages lack page authority, making it difficult for them to rank well.

Reintegrating orphan pages into your site’s structure can significantly enhance their SEO performance. By directing link authority from other parts of your site, these pages can perform better. Additionally, if the orphan page has a simplified navigation (such as a landing or campaign page), adding navigation links will also boost the performance of other pages on your site.

Orphan pages hurt user experience

Orphan pages don’t offer an optimal user experience.

If users discover the page organically, it may contain outdated information, like details of an expired event or sale. Even if the content is still valuable, users may struggle to find the page again later without proper internal links.

Moreover, if it’s a page you want users to easily access, they won’t be able to navigate to it from anywhere else on the site.

In either case, this creates a frustrating experience and negatively impacts user engagement.

So, Can Google find orphan pages?

It depends on whether the orphan pages are included in the XML sitemap or have other references, such as incoming canonicals, redirects, or hreflang tags pointing to them. If these references exist, or the pages are in the XML sitemap, Google is likely able to locate them.

However, this doesn’t guarantee that Google will index the pages. If Google deems the pages unimportant, they may still choose not to index them.

Common reasons orphan pages exist

In some instances, it’s perfectly normal to have non-indexable orphan pages, such as PPC landing pages or specific campaign pages designed for a targeted audience.

However, in many cases, orphan pages occur unintentionally and are overlooked during SEO audits. Common reasons for orphan pages include:

• A poor or incomplete internal linking structure
• Neglecting site maintenance
• Difficulty tracking pages
• Regular updates and site migrations causing loss of oversight on page links
• Failing to update or remove outdated pages, like old campaign or landing pages, past event pages, discontinued product pages, or limited-time offers, without archiving them properly.

How to find orphan pages

ContentKing monitors your website continuously rather than taking snapshots, you can easily find orphan pages. The platform tracks pages even if they have no links, keeping a log of all activities on your site and recording statuses before and after changes.

Here’s how to find orphan pages with ContentKing:

1. Log in to ContentKing.
2. Click on the “Pages” overview.
3. Go to the “Type” column and select only the “Page” filter.
4. Next, navigate to the “Indexable” column and select the “Yes” filter.
5. Then, go to the “Linked” column and select the “No” filter.

If you haven’t been using ContentKing to monitor your site, you can still track down orphan pages. Here’s how:

1. Export & Cross-Reference: Export a list of known pages from ContentKing or a legacy crawler and cross-reference it with data from Google Analytics and Google Search Console using a VLOOKUP function in Excel or Google Sheets. Pages that appear in Google Analytics or Search Console but not in your exported list are your orphan pages.
2. Log File Analysis: Export a list of all requested URLs from your server logs. Filter out non-page URLs, non-indexable pages, and pages without internal links. You’ll need a monitoring tool like ContentKing or a legacy crawler to identify which pages are non-indexable or lack internal links. The remaining URLs are your orphan pages.

Common characteristics of orphan pages

Here are some common traits to help you identify orphan pages on your site:

No Inbound Links

The primary characteristic of an orphan page is that it lacks any inbound links. If a page has even one link pointing to it—whether from the homepage or an old blog post—it’s not considered an orphan. However, if a page has only one link, it’s worth improving its internal linking by adding more connections from other parts of your site.

The Page is Live

Unlike test or sandbox pages, a true orphan page is live and has value for users but is inaccessible. Even if the page has a 200 server status (indicating it’s functioning), the issue lies in the fact that users can’t navigate to it through your site’s structure, making it an orphan.

Orphan Pages May Still be Indexed

Even if a page is indexed or a tool doesn’t flag it as an orphan, it can still be one. This can be tricky to verify and may require further investigation. Sometimes, tools like Google Analytics (GA4) or Google Search Console (GSC) might overlook certain indicators, leading to pages being mistakenly categorized. For instance, this can occur when Google Ads run without specific URL parameters, causing the tracking tool to miss an inbound link.

How to fix orphan pages

Once you’ve identified the orphan pages on your site, it’s time to decide what to do with them.

Determine if the Orphan Pages Still Have a Purpose

Start by assessing whether these orphan pages still serve a purpose.

• If the answer is yes, integrate them into your site structure
  Adopt these pages into your site structure by adding internal links and ensuring they’re included in your XML sitemap.
• If the answer is no, assess their value
  If the pages no longer seem purposeful, check if they still carry value for your site. To determine this, ask the following questions:
  • Are these pages receiving (organic) traffic?
  • Do they have external links pointing to them?
  • Do they offer useful content for your visitors?

Take Action Based on the Evaluation

• If the answer to all these questions is no, removing the pages is best.
• If the answer to at least one question is yes, 301-redirect the orphan page to a relevant alternative page.

The Importance of Ongoing Monitoring

Every part of your site, including orphan pages, impacts your SEO performance. Continuous monitoring is essential to ensure these issues don’t go unnoticed. Optimising orphan pages improves visibility and ensures users aren’t missing valuable content.