Find pages missing internal routes by comparing URL inventories. Decide which to reconnect, revise or consolidate through their current purpose.
A page can be live, listed in a sitemap and accessible by its direct address while remaining unreachable through the website's navigation. Pages without an internal route deserve review. Before adding links indiscriminately, establish whether each page is current and what role it should play within the site.
Do not treat one crawl as the whole inventory
Compare addresses found through navigation with CMS records, sitemaps and appropriate additional URL inventories. Investigate addresses present in one source but absent from another. A difference is not automatically an orphan: filters, redirects and intentional special journeys may explain it.
Review the crawler's configuration too. A page missed because of authentication, JavaScript navigation or a scope limit differs from one with no internal links. Know where the tool started and which paths it could follow before assigning a definite label.
Assess why the page should remain
A service, old campaign, event record and current guide call for different decisions. Is the information accurate and needed? Does the page have an independent job? Where would a visitor need it? Adding every candidate to the main menu before answering those questions can make navigation harder.
Imagine a new specialist-service page omitted from the service hub. A relevant link there makes sense. An expired campaign with outdated conditions may need another treatment. This hypothetical comparison demonstrates why content status should precede the linking decision.
| Page state | Question | Decision direction |
|---|---|---|
| Current with an independent purpose | Where should visitors discover it? | Connect from relevant hubs and content. |
| Duplicates another page's job | Is a separate version needed? | Consider editorial consolidation. |
| Contains outdated conditions | Does it have historical or update value? | Choose revision or archival treatment. |
| Belongs to a special journey | Should it appear in general navigation? | Assess access and purpose. |
| Was generated accidentally | Which process created it? | Correct the underlying source. |
Place the link at a relevant decision point
Google's link guidance addresses supporting important pages with internal connections. The link should help a reader reach the next useful piece of information. Repeating an unrelated long link list beneath every article does not create a clearer context.
Service hubs, related products, topic guides and process explanations provide different entry points. Make the target understandable through the page name and link text. Once visitors arrive, they should also understand the page's location and how to return to the wider topic.
Complete publication with a connection check
After the correction, follow the intended internal path to the page. Verify the actual destination and check that it does not accidentally open the wrong language version. Closing a row in the inventory does not establish that a visitor can complete the task.
Add “which existing pages will lead here?” to the new-content workflow. Review incoming links when content moves or is removed. Orphan-page review then becomes an ongoing architecture habit rather than an occasional cleanup exercise.