What Are Orphan Pages?
Orphan pages are webpages on a site that have no internal links pointing to them. In other words, they exist in isolation from the rest of the website’s navigation. Think of them like “little islands” separated from your main site structure; users can’t reach them through normal menus or links, and neither can search engine crawlers by following links.
How Orphan Pages Occur
Orphan pages often happen accidentally over time.
A common cause is simply forgetting to link a new page into the site’s navigation or relevant content. For example, if someone publishes a new blog post or product page but never adds any links to it (from menus, categories, or other pages), it remains orphaned.
Site redesigns or migrations can also create orphans – pages that were once linked might get dropped from new navigation structures.
In short, orphan pages are often forgotten or overlooked pages that ended up with no incoming links in the site’s internal linking structure.
Why Orphan Pages Are a Problem
Orphan pages come with a few serious issues for both SEO and user experience.
Discovery and Indexing
If no page on your site links to an orphan page, search engines won’t find it through regular crawling. The only way they might discover it is through your XML sitemap or an external backlink. Even then, Google may still treat it as low priority. John Mueller from Google has said that orphan pages might not be indexed at all if they seem unimportant or disconnected from the rest of your site. No internal links usually means limited crawling and lower chances of getting indexed.
Ranking and Link Equity
Even if an orphan page does get indexed, it’s not likely to rank well. That’s because it receives no internal link equity. Internal links help search engines understand which pages matter most. Without them, your page isn’t seen as important and doesn’t benefit from any PageRank flow. Google’s algorithms are designed to prioritise pages that are part of your site’s structure. If a page is floating on its own, it’s likely to get ignored.
User Experience
Orphan pages are hard for users to find. Unless someone already has the exact link or stumbles on it through search, they’ll never land on it. If you’ve got useful content on that page, it’s basically invisible to your visitors. That leads to a poor experience—people miss out on content that could help them, simply because it’s not connected to the rest of your site.
How Search Engines Handle Orphan Pages
Search engines mostly find new pages by following links. Since orphan pages have no internal links, crawlers like Googlebot won’t come across them while navigating your site.
That said, Google can still discover these pages through other paths. For example, if the page is listed in your XML sitemap or if another website links to it, Google might crawl and index it anyway.
But here’s the catch. Even if the page gets indexed, Google sees it as low priority. Pages with no internal links are treated as non-essential, and they’re more likely to drop out of the index over time—especially if the content doesn’t offer much value.
Orphan pages often end up stuck in Google Search Console under “Discovered – currently not indexed” or “Crawled – currently not indexed.” That means Google knows about the page but isn’t giving it enough weight to include it in search results. The lack of internal links sends a clear signal: this page probably isn’t important.
Also, don’t assume that orphaning a page is a good way to hide it. If the URL exists and is public, Google might still find it—through sitemaps, analytics data, or backlinks. If you want to block a page properly, use tools like noindex tags, robots.txt, or set up authentication. Just leaving it unlinked won’t keep it out of search.
How to Find Orphan Pages on Your Site
Orphan pages are hard to spot because they aren’t linked anywhere on your site. To find them, you’ll need to combine a few tools and data sources.
XML Sitemaps and Known URL Lists
Start with a complete list of all the URLs that should exist on your site. Your XML sitemap is a good place to begin, since it’s meant to include all important pages. You can also pull URLs from your CMS or export them from your site database. The goal is to get a full picture of every page that currently exists—or used to.
Google Analytics
Look for pages that have had zero visits, or zero organic visits, over a long period. If a page gets traffic from direct or social channels but none from organic, it might not be showing up in search or linked anywhere on your site. Analytics won’t help you find pages that truly have no visitors, but it can point to pages people only access directly—those might be orphaned.
Google Search Console
In the Performance report, filter for pages with no impressions and no clicks over the past year or more. If a page has never appeared in search results and it’s been live for a while, it could be orphaned. The Index Coverage report might also show URLs as “Indexed, not submitted in sitemap,” which could be another clue.
Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing might show you URLs that Google doesn’t, especially if it’s discovered them from external sources. It’s another helpful place to check for “known pages” that don’t show up in your internal crawl.
Crawl Your Website
Use an SEO crawler like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Ahrefs, or Semrush to scan your site starting from the homepage. This shows you which pages are actually connected through internal links. Then compare that list to your full URL list (from your sitemap, CMS, or analytics). Any URLs that exist in your data but weren’t found by the crawler are likely orphaned. Most crawling tools let you import external URL lists and will automatically highlight which ones weren’t discovered through internal links. Those are your orphan pages.
How to fix Orphan Pages
Once you’ve identified orphan pages, the solution is usually straightforward: integrate them into your site’s linking structure.
In practice, that means adding at least one internal link to each orphan page from a relevant page on your site. For instance, if an orphan page is a blog post, link to it from a category page or another related post. If it’s a product page, ensure it’s linked from the appropriate category or menu.
When fixing orphans, pay attention to relevance and user experience.
Don’t just shoehorn links in random places; add them where it makes logical sense for users navigating the site. You might add it to a site menu, include it in an index page, or contextually link it within other content where the topic is related. Also, avoid linking from another orphan page – the link should come from a page that is already well connected in your site hierarchy.
After adding internal links, the formerly orphaned page is no longer an “orphan.” Googlebot will be able to find it by crawling, and the page will start receiving link equity from your site (improving its SEO). Monitor Google Search Console indexing status for those pages in subsequent weeks to ensure they get indexed.
In some cases, you might find orphan pages that are not actually needed or wanted. Perhaps they were old campaign landing pages, duplicate content, or test pages.
For such pages, an alternative “fix” is to remove or redirect them instead of linking them. Audit whether each orphan page is valuable. If it is valuable, link it up. If not, consider removing it (with a 404/410 or redirect as appropriate – see the section on 410 status below for guidance) so it doesn’t linger as a thin or forgotten page.
Lastly, to prevent future orphan pages, always ensure new content is integrated into your site menu or linked from relevant pages when published. Keeping a well-structured site architecture (with every page reachable through some path) is an SEO best practice.
FAQs
What’s the difference between orphan pages and dead-end pages?
Orphan pages have no internal links pointing to them, while dead-end pages don’t link out to any other internal content. Orphans are invisible within the site’s structure, while dead-ends can hurt navigation flow. Both can create SEO issues, but orphan pages are more likely to be missed entirely by crawlers and users.
Can orphan pages still rank in Google?
They can, but it’s unlikely. Without internal links, Google sees them as low priority. They might get indexed if found through a sitemap or backlink, but they often won’t rank well due to lack of link equity and context. Pages need to be connected to the rest of your site to be competitive in search.
Are orphan pages always bad for SEO?
Not always, but most of the time, yes. Some orphan pages might exist for a reason—like unlinked thank-you pages or temporary campaigns—but most are simply overlooked. If a page has value, it should be integrated into your site structure. Otherwise, it could be a missed opportunity or even drag down overall site quality.
How often should I check for orphan pages?
It’s good practice to audit for orphan pages at least once every quarter. If you regularly publish content, update your site, or do migrations, check more frequently. Tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb make it easier to catch and fix them before they pile up and start affecting crawlability and performance.
Do orphan pages affect crawl budget?
Yes. Orphan pages can lead to inefficient crawling. If Google discovers them through a sitemap or external source, it may crawl them, but without context or value signals, they can waste crawl budget. Linking your pages properly helps search engines focus on content that actually matters, improving crawl efficiency across your site.
