Hi, Does having orphan pages on my site negatively affect my seo? Thank you.

[whiteonlySEO]

Hi,

I have quite a few orphan pages on my site and we see that our rankings have fell significantly over the past 6 months. Can this have be negatively affecting our rankings?

Thank you.

[brettmandoes]

If by orphaned you mean that the pages are inaccessible from other parts of the website and Google is unable to see them, then technically no, it's not impacting your rankings. Or it could be technically yes, depending on how you look at it.

If Google can't see the pages, hasn't indexed the pages, then it doesn't factor those pages into its algorithm. If those pages contain valuable content that users would like to see, then they should be accessible, and making them accessible to users and to Google can improve your rankings.

I would ask why they're orphaned first before making changes though. If they're landing pages meant only to track SEM campaigns, or test pages to try new code, etc. it makes sense to keep those pages orphaned. Context is key. Don't open pandora's box by accident! But keeping them orphaned isn't actually impacting your rankings, because it's as though it doesn't exist to Google. So proceed cautiously, and may the odds be ever in your favor.