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SERPCompass

Orphan pages, deep pages and weak internal links

Link every page you want found from at least one related page on your site, with an ordinary HTML link whose words name the page's topic. Pages only your sitemap lists, pages more than three clicks from your home page and pages that link nowhere need links added, and links that say click here or read more need descriptive words. Menus, hub pages and related-content links do the work.

Last updated 29 October 2026, when every step was checked against the vendor's documentation.

Why it matters

Google uses links to find new pages to crawl, and as a signal of how relevant pages are. Its link guide says every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site, and that it can reliably follow only <a> elements with an href, not links built from onclick or other elements.

A sitemap does not replace those links. Google says a sitemap helps it discover pages but does not guarantee they are crawled or indexed, and that if a site's pages are properly linked, Google can usually discover most of the site. An orphan page, which only the sitemap lists, rests on that hint alone, and visitors have no way to reach it at all.

Anchor text, the clickable words, tells people and Google what the linked page is about. Google asks for text that is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to both pages, calls 'Click here' and 'Read more' too generic, and uses an image's alt text as the anchor of an image link. It asks for the same care on links between your own pages.

Click depth is our own measure: SERPCompass counts the fewest links a visitor has to follow from your start page, usually the home page, and flags pages more than three clicks away. Google publishes no such limit; three is our threshold, because a page that far down hangs on a long chain of links that any one change can break.

A rel="nofollow" on a link to one of your own pages asks Google not to follow it. Google says links with nofollow are generally not followed, keeps the value for links you would rather Google not associate your site with or crawl from it, and says that to keep Google from fetching a page of your own site you should use a robots.txt disallow rule instead. The other link notice is about page size: SERPCompass lists pages with more than 300 links, to your own site and others together. That number is our threshold, not Google's: Google says there is no magical ideal number of links a page should contain, and that if you think it is too much, it probably is.

SERPCompass rates orphan pages, and pages Google shows that no internal link or sitemap entry reaches, as warnings. Deep pages, dead ends, pages every link reaches with generic or empty text, pages using generic anchors, nofollow on internal links and pages with more than 300 links are notices. A page that only one other page links to is listed as a suggestion and never lowers your score.

The audit findings this guide fixes: Orphan pages (only reachable from the sitemap); Search Console pages no link or sitemap reaches; Pages more than three clicks from the start page; Pages with only one incoming internal link; Pages with no outgoing internal links; Pages linked only with generic or empty anchor text; Links with generic anchor text; Nofollow on internal links; Pages with more than 300 links.

Find every page with this problem

Run the free scan on your domain. It crawls from your home page, follows every internal link, reads your sitemap and records each page's click depth, the pages that link to it and the words of those links. It reports orphan pages only when it followed every link within its page budget, so a page the crawl merely did not reach is never called an orphan, and it looks for pages with a single incoming link only when it crawled ten pages or more, counting followed links. Generic anchor text means links whose whole text is click here, here, read more, more, learn more, this, link, this link, go, details or continue; an image link with no alt text or other label counts as empty. It also lists pages that put rel="nofollow" on a link to your own site, and pages with more than 300 links, to your site and others together. The Gap Report and a SERPCompass workspace list the affected pages, and a workspace connected to Google Search Console also lists pages Google shows that no internal link or sitemap entry reaches.

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How to fix it on your platform

Links from other websites, and broken internal links and links that pass through redirects, are not covered here; the last two have their own guides.

WordPress (no SEO plugin)

  1. Open a post or page related to the orphan or deep page and select the words that name it.
  2. Click the link button, or press Ctrl+K (⌘+K on a Mac), type part of the page's title, choose it from the results and update the post.
  3. To change the words of an existing link, select the linked text: WordPress shows a preview with options to open, edit, remove or copy the link.
  4. To add the page to a block theme's menu, select the Navigation block, click + (Add page), type part of the page title and select it. If the menu is still a Page List, click Edit in the block toolbar first.
  5. In a classic theme, go to Appearance > Menus, tick the page in the Pages pane, click Add to Menu, then Save Menu.

Sources: Link control (WordPress documentation); Navigation block (WordPress documentation); Appearance Menus screen (WordPress documentation).

WordPress with Yoast SEO

  1. In your posts overview, Yoast adds two link counts to each post: internal links from it to other posts and pages, and internal links to it from elsewhere on your site.
  2. Click the icon above the second column to sort posts by the links pointing to them, and link the ones with none or few from related posts.
  3. Sort by the first column to find posts that link to few or no other pages, and add links to related pages from them.
  4. Yoast SEO Premium also suggests related posts to link to while you write, in a box on the right of the editor.

Sources: How many internal links does a post have? (Yoast); Internal linking suggestions (Yoast).

WordPress with Rank Math

  1. Go to Posts, or Pages, in WordPress: Rank Math's link counter shows each post's internal links, external links and incoming links, meaning links to it from other posts and pages of your site.
  2. Link the posts with no incoming links from related posts, and add links to related pages from posts with no internal links.
  3. If the counts look wrong, go to Rank Math SEO > Status & Tools > Database Tools with Advanced Mode on, use Delete Internal Links Data, then open and save each post so Rank Math counts its links again.

Source: How does Rank Math's link counter work? (Rank Math).

Shopify

  1. A page you create in Online Store > Pages appears in your store's navigation only once a menu links to it.
  2. To add it, go to Content > Menus, click the menu, click Add menu item, enter a Name, click Search or paste a link, choose the page, product or collection, click Add and then Save menu. Shopify advises choosing from the list rather than pasting an address.
  3. To link from a product description, collection description, page or blog post, highlight the words in the rich text editor, click Insert link, enter the address in Link to, such as /collections/summer-collection, add a Link title and click Insert link. Shopify recommends links that start with / for pages of your own store.

Sources: Adding and editing pages (Shopify Help Center); Editing menus (Shopify Help Center); Using the rich text editor (Shopify Help Center).

Wix

  1. New pages are added to your site menu automatically. To show a page you hid from it, click Pages & Menu, click the page's More Actions icon and choose Show in menu.
  2. To link text, a button or an image to another page, select it, click the Link icon, choose Page, select the page and click Done.
  3. In a blog post, highlight the words, click Link, select Page, choose the page from the Page drop-down and click Save.
  4. Publish your site: links do not work inside the editor.

Sources: Adding a page to your site (Wix Help Center); Hiding and unhiding a page from your site menu (Wix Help Center); Adding a link to an element (Wix Help Center); Linking to other site pages from your blog posts (Wix Help Center).

Squarespace

  1. Pages in the Not linked section of the Pages panel do not appear in your navigation, although visitors and search engines can still reach them. Move a page you want found into a navigation section, enabling it first if it is disabled.
  2. To link from text, highlight the words in a text block and click the link icon in the text toolbar.
  3. In the link editor, select URL, then scroll or start typing the page title, product name or URL to filter the list, choose the page, and press Enter or click Save.
  4. If you later change a linked page's URL slug, the link breaks: reopen the link editor and select the new address.

Sources: The Not linked section (Squarespace Help Center); Creating text links (Squarespace Help Center); Add links to your site (Squarespace Help Center).

Plain HTML

  1. Link with an <a> element and an href, such as <a href="/services/drains/">drain cleaning</a>, not with onclick or a script.
  2. Link each page you care about from at least one related page, in the text where a reader would want it, and put the pages that matter most in the menu or on a hub page that links to them, so they sit a few clicks from the home page.
  3. Write anchor text that names the destination's topic, and give every image link an alt that does, because Google uses it as the anchor.
  4. Give dead-end pages a way on: links to related pages, the section they belong to or the next step, such as your contact page.
  5. If an orphan page should not be found at all, take it out of your sitemap, and redirect it or let it answer 404 or 410.
  6. Remove rel="nofollow" from links to your own pages that you want found. To keep Google from fetching a page of your site, use a robots.txt Disallow rule instead, as Google advises for links within your own site.
  7. On a page with more than 300 links, trim repeated menus and footer link lists to the links visitors use.

Sources: Link best practices for Google (Google Search Central); What is a sitemap (Google Search Central); Qualify your outbound links to Google (Google Search Central).

Examples

  • Bad 
    <p>We clear blocked drains the same day. <a href="/services/drains/">Click here</a></p>

    Generic: the link's words say nothing about the page it leads to.

  • Good 
    <p>See our <a href="/services/drains/">drain cleaning prices and response times</a>.</p>

    The linked words name the destination.

  • Bad 
    <a href="/offers/"><img src="/img/banner.jpg"></a>

    An image link without alt text has no anchor text at all.

  • Good 
    <a href="/offers/"><img src="/img/banner.jpg" alt="Winter boiler service offer"></a>

    Google uses the alt text as the link's anchor.

  • Bad 
    <span onclick="location.href='/services/drains/'">Drain cleaning</span>

    Not a link Google can rely on following: use an <a> element with an href.

  • Bad 
    Home > Blog > Page 2 > Page 3 > Page 4 > Boiler repair checklist

    Five clicks from the home page, through pagination only: link it from a current post or a topic hub.

Common mistakes

  • Counting on the sitemap to get a page found: a sitemap is a hint, not a link, and it gives visitors no way in.
  • Putting 'read more' or 'learn more' on every card and button, so every link to a page says the same thing.
  • Linking with images that have no alt text, or with buttons and scripts instead of <a href> links.
  • Taking a page out of the menu, such as Squarespace's Not linked section or a Wix page hidden from the menu, without linking to it from anywhere else.
  • Leaving older posts reachable only through page 2, 3 and 4 of an archive, so they sink deeper with every new post.
  • Stuffing keywords into anchor text: Google calls keyword stuffing a violation of its spam policies.
  • Chaining links next to each other: Google says readers then find them harder to tell apart, and each link loses the text around it.
  • Putting rel="nofollow" on links to your own pages, such as login or contact links, to steer crawlers. For pages of your own site Google should not fetch, Google points to robots.txt.

Questions and answers

What is an orphan page?

A page that no other page on your site links to. Search engines may still find it through your sitemap or links from other sites, but nothing on your own site leads people or crawlers to it. SERPCompass reports pages its crawl reached only through your sitemap, and only when it followed every link on the site within its page budget.

How many clicks from the home page should a page be?

Google publishes no number. SERPCompass flags pages more than three clicks from the start page, usually your home page, counting the fewest links needed to get there. Keep the pages you care about close to the home page through the menu, hub pages and links from related content.

Is click here bad for SEO?

Google calls anchors such as Click here and Read more too generic: link text should be descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to both pages. Generic words tell search engines nothing about the destination. Rewrite the sentence so the linked words name the page, such as see our drain cleaning prices.

How many internal links should a page have?

Google says there is no magical ideal number, and that if you think it is too many, it probably is. Link where a reader would want to go next. SERPCompass lists pages with more than 300 links, to your site and others together, as a notice: that number is our threshold, not Google's. It also flags pages that link to no other page of your site.

Does a page need more than one internal link?

One link is enough for Google to find a page, and SERPCompass lists pages with a single incoming link as a suggestion that never lowers your score. A second link from another related page means the page is not lost when that one linking page changes or is removed.

Sources

Every step above was checked against these documents on 29 October 2026. Vendors change their menus; if a step no longer matches, the vendor's page is the authority.

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