Issue: Orphaned pages in your sitemap.xml are not linked internally, making them harder for users to find and potentially wasting your crawl budget. Search engines may still crawl these pages, even if they’re outdated or unimportant.
Fix: Review orphaned pages in your sitemap.xml and either link them internally, remove them, or decide if they can remain as-is.
How to Fix for Beginners
- Identify Orphaned Pages: Use tools like Google Search Console or SEO audit software to locate orphaned pages in your sitemap.
- Example: If
https://example.com/page3is an orphaned page, ensure it’s useful and still relevant.
- Example: If
- Link Internally: For pages with valuable content, add links to them from other relevant pages on your site.
- Example: Add a link to
https://example.com/page3in a related blog post or navigation menu.
- Example: Add a link to
- Remove Outdated Pages: If the page is no longer useful, delete it and update your sitemap to reflect the change.
- Example: Remove
https://example.com/old-pagefrom your sitemap and delete the file.
- Example: Remove
- Leave Special-Purpose Pages: If the page serves a specific purpose (like a landing page for ads), you can leave it unlinked but ensure it’s still needed.
Tip: Linking valuable pages internally improves SEO and user navigation while optimizing your crawl budget.