An orphan page is a webpage on a website that has no internal links pointing to it. This means that users and search engines cannot easily find the page by navigating through the site because there are no connections (links) from other pages on the website to it.
Orphan pages are not linked to the rest of the website, which makes them difficult to discover unless someone has the exact URL.
Why Are Orphan Pages a Problem?
Orphan pages can cause several issues for a website, including:
- Poor user experience: Since there are no links to these pages, visitors may not be able to find important information that the page contains.
- Negative impact on SEO: Search engines rely on internal links to crawl (scan) and index your website’s pages. Without links, orphan pages may not get indexed, meaning they won’t appear in search results.
- Missed opportunities: If an orphan page has useful content, but no one can find it, your website is missing out on potential traffic and engagement.
How Do Orphan Pages Occur?
Orphan pages can happen for several reasons, such as:
- Old content: Pages created in the past that no longer have links from other parts of the website.
- Site restructuring: Changes to the website’s structure, like moving or deleting pages, can leave some pages without links.
- Incorrect linking: A page might be added but never linked properly from other relevant pages.