How Do You Identify And Fix Orphaned Pages?

Story Based Question

You’re reviewing the SEO performance of your website, and notice that certain pages aren’t getting much traffic. You suspect that these pages might be isolated from the rest of the site and are hard to find. Wondering how to fix this, you think: How can I identify and fix orphaned pages on my site to improve SEO and visibility?

Exact Answer

You identify orphaned pages by running a site audit using SEO tools, and you fix them by adding internal links from relevant pages that help search engines and users discover them.

Explanation

Orphaned pages can negatively impact your website’s SEO by limiting discoverability and making it harder for search engines to index content. The good news is that there are simple ways to identify and fix them:

1. How to Identify Orphaned Pages:
   • Use SEO Tools: The easiest way to find orphaned pages is by running a site audit with tools like Screaming Frog, Google Search Console, or Ahrefs. These tools crawl your site and highlight pages with no internal links.
   • Manual Review: You can also manually check your website’s structure, especially if it’s relatively small. Look for pages that aren’t included in the main navigation or linked from any other content.
   • Check Site Analytics: If you notice certain pages have no traffic at all, these could be orphaned. Look for pages with 0 or minimal pageviews in Google Analytics, which can indicate they’re hidden from search engines and users.
   Example: You run a recipe blog, and after checking Google Search Console, you find several blog posts with zero impressions. A closer look shows that they haven’t been linked from other posts or your homepage. These posts are likely orphaned.
2. How to Fix Orphaned Pages:
   • Add Internal Links: Once you identify orphaned pages, add links to them from relevant pages on your site. For instance, if you have a blog post about a specific product, you can link to it from a related blog post, category page, or homepage.
   • Update Navigation: Ensure that important orphaned pages are included in the site’s navigation, either through the main menu, footer, or sidebar.
   • Sitemaps: Add orphaned pages to your XML sitemap so search engines can find and index them, even if they’re not directly linked from other pages.
   • Update Content Regularly: As your website grows, keep track of new content and make sure it’s properly linked to other pages. This ensures that new pages don’t become orphaned.
   Example: You discover a page for a specific product on your online store that isn’t linked anywhere. To fix this, you add a link to that product page from your category page and related blog posts. This allows users and search engines to easily find it.
3. Best Practices to Prevent Orphaned Pages in the Future:
   • Regular Audits: Periodically run site audits to catch any new orphaned pages.
   • Content Strategy: Make sure each new page is intentionally linked to other relevant content before it’s published.
   • Use Breadcrumbs: Implement breadcrumbs that link pages in a logical order, helping both users and search engines discover content easily.
   Example: In your online store, you ensure that every product page is linked to its category page and any related products. As you add new products, you also update the navigation and internal linking to keep everything connected.

Example

Let’s say you run a fitness website with multiple workout guides. One of your detailed guides, “Advanced Strength Training,” was published a few months ago, but you haven’t linked to it from other blog posts. To fix this, you go back to other workout-related blog posts and add internal links to the “Advanced Strength Training” guide. You also add the guide to your “Popular Guides” section on the homepage. After doing this, you notice an increase in traffic and better indexing by Google.

Identifying and fixing orphaned pages is crucial for maintaining good SEO health. By running site audits and adding relevant internal links, you ensure all your content is discoverable and properly indexed. This increases your site’s visibility, improves rankings, and enhances the user experience.