How to Fix Orphan Pages With Internal Links
What this means
Internal links are links from one page of your site to another. A site audit flags two kinds of poorly linked pages:
- Orphan pages: they're listed in your sitemap, but no other page on your site links to them.
- Pages with only one link pointing to them: found, but barely.
Why it matters
Visitors find pages by clicking links. A page nothing links to can only be found by someone who already knows its address, or by a lucky search.
Google uses internal links in the same way. It follows them to discover pages, and it takes the number of links to a page as a sign of how important that page is. A page with one link in looks like an afterthought, even if it's one of your best.
How to fix it
First, decide whether each page is worth keeping. Orphan pages are often leftovers: an old offer, a test page, a duplicate. If a page isn't needed, delete it or redirect its address to a related page.
For the pages you want found:
- Find related pages. Which other pages cover a similar topic, product or service? Those are the natural places to link from.
- Add links in the text. A link inside a sentence, using words that describe the page, is the most useful kind. "See our guide to choosing a wedding cake" beats "click here".
- Use your menus for important pages. A main service or category deserves a place in the navigation or footer.
- Link from your blog. Posts are a good place to link to services and products the post mentions.
- Add "related" sections. Many themes can show related posts or products at the bottom of a page.
Aim for each important page to have several links from other pages, not one.
A quick way to find linking spots
Search Google for site:yoursite.com plus the topic of the orphan page. The results are your own pages that mention that topic, and each is a candidate for a link.
What not to do
- Don't add a long list of links to every page in the footer. Links should help visitors, not just exist.
- Don't use the same vague link text everywhere. Describe the page you're linking to.
Checking your fix
Visit the pages you edited and click the new links to make sure they work.
If you use Duality, these checks depend on links across your whole site, so the next monthly audit confirms them. You can run a full audit from Site Audit if you've added a lot of links.