How to Find Orphan Pages
So, after the excitement of yesterday's post, where I went off on a bit of a rant, you will be pleased to know that normal service has been resumed!
But first, I would like to thank you all for the comments on my post and your heartfelt messages.
Interesting to note that despite its popularity, with a lot of comments and likes, it didn't once appear in the Top 10 listings...
Anyway, moving on, let's talk about orphan pages.
I have mentioned this before, but here's a quick reminder for those who don't know what they are.
Orphan pages are the posts on your website that have no internal links leading to them.
This is how Google finds your posts, by crawling a post that is already indexed and then following an internal link to a different post.
This is quite important as it can be one of the reasons why some of your posts are not indexed.
If they don't have a link leading to them, how will Google find them?
If you have a lot of content, then it could be a problem trying to find your orphan pages.
There are tools or plugins that can do this for you, but you can also potentially do this through your Google Analytics.
It's not an exact science, but this method can also bring your attention to another aspect of your post that may require some action.
Let's see how it works.
In Google Analytics, on the left, click Behavior, and then click Site Content, followed by All Pages.
This will bring up a list of all your posts.
Now, towards the top of the page, you will see the Date Range, which is set by default at 7 days.
I would suggest setting this to a longer period, perhaps 6 months.
Now, scroll down, and you will see the list of all your posts, with the one with the most page views at the top.
Click the arrow next to Page Views to reverse the order.
So, now you can see your posts that have the least number of clicks.
That tells us two things.
First of all, they could be the Orphan pages that we are looking for.
People aren't finding these posts, potentially, they are not indexed.
So, you now need to find a post that is indexed and receiving traffic, and within that, add an internal link to your Orphan post.
However, make sure the link is appropriate and relevant and that the posts are on a similar topic.
The second thing you can think about with this method is whether your post is actually meeting the searcher's intent.
If you have added an internal link, and the post is indexed but still not getting many views, it could be that it needs attention, further content, more relevant information, etc.
Of course, it could simply be relatively new and not achieved its final ranking position.
So, don't worry too much if a post that is less than 6 months old has few clicks.
In conclusion, we have explored deeper into your Analytics. to find posts that may potentially have no internal link.
By the way, the screenshots are from a Universal Analytics account, not the new GA4, which may be different.
I haven't yet gotten to grips with GA4!
I hope you learned something new; thanks for reading.
Recent Comments
32
Important to know Diane for sure. I use a plugin called linkwhisper which is a paid one but it offers many tools to help creating and maintaining links. One is the orphan link report which shows which pages/posts have no internal links and gives options to link to. I have to say it has shortened my time creating links.
Thank you, Dian, for sharing this important article.
I never know that Orphan pages existed; one learns something new every day.
I don't think I have any Orphan pages, for I always include a link to one of my articles or an Affiliate Link to a product/service.
I still learned something new.
Thank You for sharing.
Elke
Thank you Diane, I never check this. It is disappointing to see so much dead stuff in the site. But this is not because they are orphan posts.
A comment on "If they don't have a link leading to them, how will Google find them?". This is where sitemap plays a role, but indeed internal linking makes no harm.
Another note about "so you can quickly scroll through it to see if you have added an internal link." So if this post is an orphan post, adding a link in it will not help, it points to some other post which will never have benefit of it because this orphan guy receives no traffic. I guess you wanted to say to add a link in some other post linking to the orphan post. You might want to correct your sentence.
Same here about G4, it looks so ugly.
Oh dear, Jovo, I got that completely back to front, and nobody noticed, lol.
Much appreciated, I will correct that now!
It wasn't a rant, Diane, just a reminder that even Partha deserves some appreciation.
Also, Google will FIND a page even though it has no internal links, as Googlebot reads every page on your website when it crawls it and can also find it via the sitemap.
Internal links are important because they can help increase the perceived importance of the page to the search engines.
Also, your note about your post not being listed in the top 10 was interesting. I too have noted some anomalies there. Clearly the algorithm takes into account more than likes, comments and poster's rank. I wonder what the secret sauce is?
The secret sauce is to be entirely upbeat and complimentary about WA, lol. Or write that you have been indexed or you have upgraded or that your cat has had 27 kittens...
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Hi, Diane
I actually did notice that your statement would create an internal link moving away from your orphaned post, not coming to it.
I made a mental note to mention it in my answer but got distracted and neglected to do so.
For that I must apologize, especially since the distraction was a brief one. Part of getting older, I guess. 🤷♂️
Anyway, we all make errors, especially on very busy days.
I do read most but not all of your posts from top to bottom and find them helpful in a wide variety of ways.
The posts I don’t read have little or nothing to do with quality or interest. Sometimes I just run out of time and get behind.
I hope you are reading some of my posts since many of them are about musicians and bands that might provide you with a little entertainment and a short escape from the tedium of your day.
Keep on Rockin’ 🤘
Frank 🎸