Orphan page
An orphan page is a URL reachable from the sitemap but not linked from anywhere on the site.
Why it matters
It is crawled rarely and ranks poorly regardless of what the sitemap says, because the sitemap is a hint and links are the graph.
How it is measured
Crawl from the home page, collect internal URLs, and diff against the sitemap. Anything in the sitemap and not the crawl is orphaned.
Checks that involve orphan page
Related terms
Questions
What is orphan page?
An orphan page is a URL reachable from the sitemap but not linked from anywhere on the site.
Why does orphan page matter?
It is crawled rarely and ranks poorly regardless of what the sitemap says, because the sitemap is a hint and links are the graph.
How is orphan page measured?
Crawl from the home page, collect internal URLs, and diff against the sitemap. Anything in the sitemap and not the crawl is orphaned.