Orphan pages (no inbound internal links)What it checks and how to fix it

What it checks

Builds the internal link graph across all pages crawled in the audit and lists the pages (other than the home page) that no other audited page links to. It warns when there is at least one orphan, passes when every page has an inbound internal link, and needs at least two crawled pages to run.

Why it matters

A page nobody links to can only be found through the sitemap or a direct URL. Visitors browsing the site never reach it, and search engines give it no internal link equity, so it tends to rank poorly even when the content is good. Orphans are often leftovers from a redesign or landing pages that were never wired into navigation.

How to fix it

Give each orphan at least one contextual link from a relevant, well-linked page: a category or hub page, a related article, or the navigation or footer if it is important.

<!-- on /guides, the hub for the topic -->
<ul>
  <li><a href="/guides/dmarc-setup">How to set up DMARC step by step</a></li>
  <li><a href="/guides/spf-record">Writing an SPF record that does not break</a></li>
</ul>

Use descriptive anchor text rather than "click here". If an orphan is obsolete, redirect it (301) to its closest replacement or remove it from the sitemap instead of linking to it.