Orphaned Content Pages in WordPress & How to Fix Them

In the complex world of content marketing and SEO, creating high-quality articles isn’t enough. How your content is connected—both internally and in the site’s architecture—plays a massive role in visibility, discoverability, and authority. One of the most overlooked SEO issues, even on established websites, is orphaned content.

What Is Orphaned Content?

Orphaned content refers to pages or posts on your WordPress site that aren’t linked from any other internal page. In other words, they exist—but nothing in your navigation, homepage, blogroll, or other posts point to them.

Examples:

• A blog post that isn’t part of any category or tag.

• A landing page not linked in the menu, footer, or related posts.

• An old article that was once linked from others, but all those links were removed.

Even if these pages are published and indexed, they’re invisible to users and search engines when not internally linked.

 Why Orphaned Pages Are Bad for SEO

• Poor Crawlability: Search engines rely on internal links to discover and rank pages. Orphaned content may be crawled less frequently or missed entirely.

• No Link Equity Flow: Internal links help distribute “link juice.” Orphaned pages don’t receive this authority, reducing their chances to rank.

• Bad User Experience: Visitors can’t find relevant content that might actually help them, reducing time on site and increasing bounce rate.

• Degraded Content Silos: If you’re following a topical authority strategy, orphaned pages break your content clusters and dilute theme relevance.

 How to Identify Orphaned Content in WordPress

There are several ways to identify orphaned pages, depending on your toolset and site complexity.

🔍 1. Use an SEO Plugin Like Yoast or Rank Math

Both offer built-in orphaned content detection for WordPress users:

• Yoast SEO: Go to SEO → Search Appearance → Content Types. In the “Posts” section, you’ll find a filter for orphaned content.

• Rank Math: Under Analytics → SEO Performance, you’ll see a list of unlinked posts.

🔧 2. Run a Crawl Using Screaming Frog or Sitebulb

These desktop SEO tools can simulate a search engine crawl and report which URLs aren’t linked internally:

• Set crawl depth to full

• Enable “orphan URLs” detection

• Compare with sitemap to find URLs that exist but are not linked anywhere

🧠 3. Compare XML Sitemap vs Internal Links

Manually or via tools, cross-reference your XML sitemap with internal link reports to find published pages that are technically reachable but functionally hidden.

 How to Fix Orphaned Content in WordPress

Once you’ve identified orphaned content, the next step is to strategically integrate it into your site’s internal linking structure.

✅ 1. Add Internal Links from Related Articles

The most straightforward method:

• Find 2–5 relevant posts or pages.

• Add contextual links pointing to the orphaned content using optimized anchor text.

Example: If you have an orphaned post about “VPS Hosting Setup,” link to it from articles like:

• “Best VPS Hosting Providers”

• “Shared vs VPS Hosting: Pros & Cons”

✅ 2. Include in Navigation or Content Hubs

• Add the post to a relevant category page, resource page, or main menu.

• Create or update a content hub (pillar page) that links to all sub-topics, including the orphaned one.

✅ 3. Use Widgets or Related Posts Plugins

Add dynamic content in sidebars, footers, or within-post recommendations:

• “Recent posts”

• “Popular posts”

• “You may also like”

Ensure these widgets are configured to surface underlinked or orphaned posts, not just the most recent.

✅ 4. Include in Sitemaps & Check Robots.txt

If a page is orphaned and also excluded from the sitemap or blocked in robots.txt, search engines may never find it. Use SEO plugins to:

• Force-add it to your sitemap

• Ensure crawlability settings are correct

 What If You Don’t Want to Reuse the Content?

If the content is outdated, irrelevant, or duplicate:

• Redirect it (301) to a relevant page or category archive

• Update & repurpose the content with fresh information

• Merge it into another article, then redirect the original

• Delete and deindex if it serves no strategic purpose

Bonus: Automate Detection with Tools & Plugins

Orphaned content is a silent SEO killer—stealing your site’s crawl budget, hurting topical relevance, and leaving valuable pages undiscovered. Fortunately, WordPress makes it easy to identify and fix this issue using the right tools and best practices.

By bringing orphaned pages back into your internal linking strategy, you’re not just improving SEO—you’re creating a better, more discoverable experience for users and search engines alike.