Matan · SEO · Structure
Orphan pages
An orphan is a URL with no internal links pointing at it — invisible unless it is in the sitemap.
Pass condition in our engine: Full orphan detection needs a site crawl. On one URL we require at least one internal link.
1. Problem description
Orphans often appear after a navigation redesign, a deleted category, or a campaign landing page that was never added to the IA. A single-URL test cannot see inbound links; we only check whether this page itself links internally (a related health signal). Run a full report to list true orphans.
2. Most common causes
- Landing pages created for ads and never linked.
- Old blog posts dropped from the category loop.
- hreflang/canonical pointing at URLs nobody links to.
3. How to fix it
- Link to every indexable URL from a crawlable hub (nav, sitemap page, related module).
- Add the URL to the XML sitemap as a backup, not a substitute.
- 301 dead orphans you no longer need.
Test this check
We fetch only this URL (plus robots.txt / llms.txt at the domain root when the check needs them). We do not crawl the rest of the site like a full report.
Scoring rules for the full site crawl are documented in methodology. Want every category at once? Generate a free report.
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