How to Find and Fix Orphan Pages in WordPress? (Using Rank Math)

Orphan pages are one of those SEO issues that quietly build up on any WordPress website. SiteNerdy noticed this firsthand, so we started using Rank Math’s related features as soon as they were released.

Since then, we’ve been using Rank Math to find pages with no internal links. In fact, we also use it to fix orphan pages manually or automatically.

The process is pretty straightforward. Rank Math helps you identify orphan pages, review where they fit within your website structure, and add relevant internal links.

In this article, we’ll show you how to find and fix orphan pages in WordPress using Rank Math. Just keep following the process step by step. Here we go!

What are Orphan Pages? How Do They Harm Your SEO?

Before we begin, let’s start by understanding what orphan pages are. Also, we’ll check out how orphan pages harm your site’s SEO. 

So, if you’re a beginner, then please read!

Understanding Orphan Pages and How They Happen

An orphan page is a page on your website that has no internal links pointing to it. Simply put, the page exists, but your website’s other pages don’t help visitors or search engines find it.

The following points show how orphan pages happen on your website:

• When you publish content and forget to link to it.
• When you remove its internal links during a site update.
• If you leave old products and pages published after changing your site structure.

How Do Orphan Pages Harm Your SEO?

Here are some of the ways that orphan pages may affect your website:

• Search engines may have fewer paths to find the page.
• The page receives no authority from your other pages through internal links.
• Without internal links and contextual signals, the page may struggle to rank in search results.
• Visitors may have difficulty finding the page through your website.
• Your page will get little to no organic traffic.
• It will be difficult to even get indexed on search engines.
• Valuable content can remain disconnected from your main site structure.

In a nutshell, even useful content can become disconnected from the rest of your website. Internal links help Google discover pages, understand their context, and distribute link equity. Therefore, keeping important pages connected is vital.

How to Find Orphan Pages in WordPress Using Rank Math?

With that, let’s check out some effective ways to find orphan pages in WordPress. We’ll be using Rank Math for this tutorial. 

Check out our complete guide on how to install a WordPress plugin. Also, here’s an honest review of Rank Math.

Now, let’s get started!

1. Using Rank Math Pro

Are you using Rank Math Pro or planning to use this premium version? If you’re already using it, then start with this method.

Rank Math Pro lets you quickly find orphan pages on your WordPress website. Explore the steps below to find orphan pages. Here we go!

For example, let’s check out the process to find orphan posts.

First, open ‘Posts > All Posts’ on your WordPress dashboard and focus on the ‘SEO Details’ column. Then, you’ll already find the total number of internal links, external links, and incoming links for each post.

• If you see 0 internal links, then you must add other post links to that specific post. 
• Similarly, if you see 0 external links, then you must add links to your post of other sites.
• Whereas if you see 0 incoming links, then you must add that post link to other posts. Here, orphan pages are those without incoming links.

Still confused?

Another easy way is to simply use the ‘Rank Math’ filter option. There, select ‘Orphan Posts’ and hit the ‘Filter’ button.

In a moment, Rank Math will show all the orphan pages on your screen. That’s it!

If your website already has several posts and pages, then use the filter option. It’s quite a handy tool that can be part of your SEO audit routine.

2. Using Rank Math AI Link Genius

If you’re using the free Rank Math plugin, then you’ll get access to its new AI Link Genius module. This offers some help with finding and fixing orphan pages.

In fact, Rank Math Pro offers more advanced features for this. Based on your plan, follow these steps to enable and use AI Link Genius. Here we go!

First, navigate to the ‘Rank Math SEO > Dashboard > Modules’ menu. There, find and enable the ‘AI Link Genius’ module.

Next, go to the new ‘AI Link Genius’ menu. There, open the ‘Posts’ tab to find the number of internal, external, and incoming links on your posts.

Best of all, you can just open the dedicated ‘Orphan Posts’ tab. There, Rank Math clearly shows a warning indicator to help you identify posts without incoming links.

That’s not all! Here are some of the options that will ease you to find orphan posts that you might want to fix or ignore:

• Use the search bar to check orphan posts with the keyword you search for.
• Filter them based on post type (pages or posts).
• Or filter them as per their SEO score to focus on your priorities.
• Pick which details to show about such posts, like internal or external links.

This concludes the two ways to find orphan pages using Rank Math.

How to Fix Orphan Pages in WordPress Using Rank Math?

Now that you’ve found the orphan pages on your website, don’t forget to plan out what you’ll do with them. A normal blog may only need to fix those pages by adding incoming links. However, it may not always be the same case.

First, evaluate the purpose, content, importance, and value of each orphan page. With that, check out some ways you can fix orphan pages with Rank Math.

1. Manual Processes as Per Scenarios

There can be various scenarios of having orphan pages on your website. Depending on that, there can be a way to fix them. Here are some such orphan page issues with ways to manually fix them.

• Sometimes another website links to a page on your website that you have already removed or redirected. Then, contact the site owner and ask them to update the link to the new or correct URL.
• Google may crawl pages that return 4xx status codes even after you fix them. Ignore such pages, as Google will eventually stop crawling them.
• Some old pages may not get redirected after a site migration. You can redirect them to relevant new pages or return a 404 or 410 status code.
• Remove or delete pages that aren’t important, ranking any keywords, and valuable. They may also have little to no traffic and no authority. In such cases, tell search engines that the page is no longer available.
• Suppose you find an orphan page that has value and regular traffic. Then, simply add incoming links to it. Just add internal links to this page on other relevant pages of your site.

For example, the ‘Why SEO Still Matters’ page is an orphan page that’s crucial to your website. To fix it, open related posts, such as ‘SEO Guide’ and ‘How to Improve SEO.’ Now, add internal links to these pages for ‘Best SEO plugins.’

Another example involves redirecting unwanted or deleted orphan pages to another page or showing a status code. For that, use Rank Math’s redirection feature.

Just enable the ‘Redirection’ module on the ‘Rank Math SEO > Dashboard > Modules’ menu. Then, open the ‘Redirections’ menu, followed by ‘Add New.’

This opens a form to set up a redirection. There, insert the source URL (the orphan page link) and destination URL (new page). 

Next, select the redirection type and maintenance code as per the situation. For example, we’ll just show the 410 Content Deleted status for an unwanted page.

Plus, you can organize and schedule this redirection. Learn more from this tutorial.

To avoid having accidental orphan page issues, here are some preventive methods:

• Plan internal links as you prepare your content. Pick a pillar article for each major topic and link your supporting posts back to it. Link the pillar page to relevant supporting posts too, so all related content stays connected.
• Before deleting a page on your website, check if it serves as the only incoming link to your important page. If yes, then add an internal link to that page from your other existing pages beforehand.

2. Using Link Opportunities and Related Posts

Do you have or plan to get a Rank Math Content AI plan subscription? Then, check out its Link Opportunities and Related Posts features, too.

While you’re working on a page or post, open the Rank Math settings. There, you’ll find the ‘Link Opportunities’ section. Here, you’ll get link suggestions that you can add to the post. Just select the ones you want to link into your page.

Similarly, there’s also a ‘Related Posts’ option under it. This option generates related posts for your page as per the context and search intent of the page. You can also add this section by inserting a block or adding a shortcode for it.

If you regularly use these options, then it’ll help you minimize and even fix orphan pages on your WordPress website. So make a habit of doing so.

3. Automatically with Keyword Maps

Finally, you can fix orphan pages that are crucial for your site by using Keyword Maps. Based on the rules you set, this AI feature finds semantically relevant keywords to suggest link opportunities and automate internal link addition.

Just navigate to the ‘Rank Math SEO > AI Link Genius > Keyword Maps’ tab on your WordPress dashboard. There, click the ‘Create Keyword Map’ button.

Here, let’s again take the example of the ‘Why SEO still matters’ article that we found as an orphan page using Rank Math.

Now, you have to fill out the given fields. This involves:

1. Enter the ‘Name’, i.e., the main keyword for which you want to optimize the orphan page. Be careful, as this serves as the anchor text of the link.
2. Add the full URL of the orphan post in ‘Target URL.’
3. Configure the rule settings, like case sensitivity, maximum links per post, and auto-link on publish.

4. Keep a brief description for you to remember the aim of this keyword map. 
5. Insert some additional keyword variations for which you want to optimize the orphan page yourself or use AI. Then, hit the ‘Add Variations’ button.

Once you’re done, click the ‘Create Keyword Map’ button.

Instantly, Rank Math will create your keyword map, but you must run it to be applied on your website. For that, hover over the keyword map you just created and press the ‘Preview & Execute’ button.

While doing so, you’ll get a preview of the internal link suggestions that’ll point to your orphan page. This involves the page title and the before/after of the anchor text.

Go through them and uncheck the pages from which you don’t want linking to the orphan page. Keeping the ones you need as checked, click ‘Apply Changes.’

With that, the keyword map executes on your WordPress website. Check if you get a success message. Now, you can check the orphan pages list to find that the ‘Why SEO Still Matters’ is no longer an orphan page.

Regularly executing your keyword maps will also let you automatically add internal links to your desired posts. That’s how you can reduce unnecessary orphan pages on your website.

In this way, you can find and fix your orphan pages in WordPress. This even strengthens internal linking on your website.

Check the full tutorial on how to fix orphan pages with Rank Math on their site. Also, we’ve a video tutorial on automating linking with AI Link Genius.

Now we know that Rank Math is filled with several features to detect orphan pages and automate linking to avoid such issues.

Wrapping Up

That’s all for this tutorial! 

Hopefully, now you know how to find and fix orphan pages on your WordPress website. Rank Math is one of the best WordPress SEO plugins for it. But you could use any other plugin or tool with similar features available.

But did you like Rank Math for solving orphan pages for your site’s SEO? Comment your thoughts and queries below. We’ll get back to you!

Meanwhile, check out our similar articles on Rank Math AI Visibility and inserting llms.txt using Rank Math. Also, find out the best AI SEO software tools.

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