Will Breadcrumbs Fix Orphan Page Issue? A Tricky SEO Question Answered
Editor / November 28, 2024
Orphan pages harm an SEO campaign and breadcrumbs help it. The question is, will breadcrumbs fix orphan page issue?
In this FastLinky blog post, we will explore whether a well-structured breadcrumb trail can prevent orphan pages or not.
But first, we need to know some technical terms and their meanings related to this topic. Here they are.
Some Relevant Technical Terms and Their Meanings
| Technical Term | Meaning |
| Orphan Page | A page that is not linked to any other pages of a website. |
| Breadcrumb | A link that helps users take their bearings while navigating a website. |
| Breadcrumb Navigation | Using breadcrumbs to navigate a website is called breadcrumb navigation. |
| Breadcrumb Trail | The chain of breadcrumbs on a website helps users understand the site’s hierarchy and navigate it easily. This is called the breadcrumb trail. |
| Breadcrumb Schema | A scripted code that helps search engines understand the position of a page in the context of the entire website that it belongs to. |
| Internal Links | Clickable texts on a webpage that helps users to visit other pages on the same site. |
| Session Time | The total amount of time users spend navigating a website or app in a single session. |
| Bounce Rate | The percentage of users who leave a site fast after viewing only one page. |
| Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) | The method of enhancing a website’s SERP ranking and visibility is called SEO. |
| Search Engine Results Page (SERP) | The pages Google returns against a search query are called SERPs. |
| Technical SEO | This is the process of optimising a site’s technical aspects for better SERP ranking and visibility. |
| Indexing | A process search engines use to store and organise information from websites for fast responses to search queries. |
| Crawler (also known as web spider or search bot) | A programme in a search algorithm that scans websites and indexes their content. |
| Crawl Budget | The number of pages on a site that Google crawls in a given time. |
| Google Analytics | A free tool provided by Google that helps administrators monitor the performance of their websites or apps. |
| Google Search Console (GSC) | A free tool that helps administrators enhance their pages’ Google SERP rankings. |
| Deep Site Architecture | A website page structure with multi-layer categories and sub-categories. Such sites are difficult to navigate due to their complex structure. |
Orphan Page Issues
An orphan page is a webpage not linked to any other pages on the site it is a part of.
It disturbs both SEO executives and users like an orphan crybaby.
But before we deal with the question, will breadcrumbs fix orphan page issues, we must know how an orphan page harms SEO.
Google Can’t Index It
As an orphan page is not linked to other pages, search engine crawlers can’t find any path to reach, evaluate and index them.
As a result, that page may not appear in search results.
Wastes Crawl Budget
An orphan page takes up too much of the crawl budget, making it difficult for other valuable pages on the website to get scanned and indexed by crawlers.
Thus an orphan page not only remains like a traceless entity on a website, it may seriously hamper the overall SEO campaign for a website.
Registers A Low Ranking
Since Google finds it hard to find, scan and index an orphan page, the page hardly appears in search results.
Even if it does appear, it usually registers a low SERP ranking, no matter how valuable its content is. This is a total waste of outstanding content on a site.
Harms User Experience
As for users, they are also deprived of that outstanding content as the orphan page doesn’t show up on the SERP.
How to Find An Orphan Page?
This is a nightmarish question an SEO executive never wants to ask himself. And here lies the significance of the question we are dealing with, will breadcrumbs fix orphan page issue?
SEO guys use various tools and crawlers to find pages, but the pages must be linked to each other to get found.
As an orphan page is not linked to other pages of the website, the traditional tools and crawlers can’t find them.
Some companies have developed special orphan page checker tools to discover orphan pages, but the prices of these tools may give you a cardiac arrest.
Your best bet is to use Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
The first one will help you identify low-traffic pages and find out if they are orphans or not. GSC will help you monitor orphan pages on your site.
Here is a flowchart of this action you can follow.
- List all pages on your website.
- Identify linked and crawlable pages.
- Run a crawling of the entire website.
- Analyse the crawl results to identify orphan pages.
Breadcrumbs and Their Benefits in SEO
We are now approaching the answer to the key question of this post, will breadcrumbs fix orphan page issue?
But we’ll first discuss breadcrumbs and the benefits they yield for SEO so we can put our question and its answer into the proper perspective.
Remember the orphan duo Hansel and Gretel in the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale? These two siblings lay a breadcrumb trail so they can trace their way back. Remember?
Now apply this analogy to our orphan page. A breadcrumb trail can help a user retrace its steps and go back to previous pages during navigation.
What are Breadcrumbs?
Breadcrumbs are clickable texts on a website that help users understand their position on the site while navigating it.
Breadcrumbs are an element in technical SEO that aims to improve a website’s technical aspects like architecture for better SERP ranking.
They are like the trail laid by the Brothers Grimm’s story, helping users navigate back and forth smoothly on a website.
To enhance your user experience while reading and understanding this post, I’ll have to briefly tell you the benefits of breadcrumbs before I answer your question, will breadcrumbs fix orphan page issue.
Types of Breadcrumbs
There are mainly three types of breadcrumbs. Here is a brief introduction to them.
Location-Based Breadcrumbs
Location-based breadcrumbs show the trail from the homepage to the current page. They are also known as hierarchy-based breadcrumbs.
Their benefits are listed below.
- Provide users with a clear trail to the page they are now viewing.
- Help users get back to the pages they left behind without using the browser’s back button.
- Help users remain psychologically connected to the context.
Path-Based Breadcrumbs
These breadcrumbs show the path to the current page based on the user’s navigation history. They are also known as history-based breadcrumbs.
Their benefits are listed below.
- This type of breadcrumbs has very limited use.
- They help users backtrack without clicking the back button. For example, when a user applies filters but wants to jump back to the previous page.
Attribute-Based Breadcrumbs
In this discussion over will breadcrumbs fix orphan page issue, we’ll now discuss attribute-based breadcrumbs.
These breadcrumbs are used primarily on e-commerce sites. They help users retrace their steps based on the attributes of the products they are exploring.
Their benefits are listed below.
- When a user explores a category page, these breadcrumbs help them keep track of their selections based on the products’ attributes like size, colour etc.
- By making navigation easy, these breadcrumbs encourage users to view more products and may push them into the next layer of the sales funnel.
Benefits of Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs, if properly used, can yield several benefits both for SEO executives and users. The principal benefits of breadcrumb navigation are listed below.
They Enhance User Experience
Breadcrumbs enhance user experience on a website.
They help users move up and down easily while navigating a website, especially one that has a deep site architecture.
These sites have multiple layers of categories and subcategories and without the facility of breadcrumb navigation users may find it difficult to explore the site.
Thus by improving user experience, breadcrumbs may significantly cut down the bounce rate.
Increase Session Time
This enhanced user experience will encourage users to stay on your site longer.
This longer user engagement may indirectly help the SEO. This is because longer session time is one of the ranking metrics for search engines.
Build SEO-Friendly Internal Links
Breadcrumbs are nothing but a kind of internal link. They not only enhance user experience but help Google crawl, understand and index pages on a website easily.
The use of breadcrumb schema can help search engines follow the breadcrumb trail on a website.
This further helps search engines understand the hierarchical structure of pages on a website and crawl them effectively.
Will Breadcrumbs Fix Orphan Page Issue?
Now we are ready to address the question, will breadcrumbs fix the orphan page issue?
The answer is, no, breadcrumbs cannot fix the orphan page issue.
Breadcrumbs and breadcrumb trails significantly enhance user experience and help search engines understand, evaluate and rank websites on the SERPs.
But breadcrumbs cannot completely get rid of the orphan page issue. The reasons for this are listed below.
Help Navigation Only
To evaluate and index a webpage, Googlebot needs to crawl the page and discover new pages following the website’s link trail.
But an orphan page, as we now know, is not linked to the other pages on the website. It is just a lost, isolated page that no one can find.
Though breadcrumbs can enhance navigation they are not designed to help search engines discover new pages.
They can help search engines understand the hierarchy of a website’s pages and crawl them. But they cannot direct them to an isolated and lost orphan page that has no links to other pages on the website.
Cannot Substitute Internal Link Structure
Breadcrumbs have limited linking scope. They link pages according to the hierarchical structure of pages on the website they belong to.
So a breadcrumb trail cannot lead to a page that has no links from other pages and that is outside the overall hierarchical page structure.
Only a strong and efficient internal link structure can prevent orphan pages, breadcrumbs cannot as they cannot be a substitute for internal link structure.
So, I must say no to your question, will breadcrumbs fix orphan page issue?
Cannot Provide Direct Links
To get back to the mainstream, an orphan page needs direct links from other relevant pages.
Breadcrumbs link pages according to their hierarchical architecture. They cannot provide an orphan page with direct internal links they need to be visible in the site’s overall page structure.
So, again, no to will breadcrumbs fix orphan page issue?
Conclusion
You see, the answer to the question, will breadcrumbs fix orphan page issue will have to be a clear no.
But though they cannot fix orphan page issues, breadcrumbs have other major benefits both for users and SEO executives.
By laying a clear breadcrumb trail, they make SEO more effective and help users have an enhanced user experience.
Utilising the breadcrumb navigation, SEO can indirectly improve a page’s SERP ranking, visibility and probably saleability.
But to fix orphan page issues, we cannot entirely depend on breadcrumbs.
FAQs.
Q. What are breadcrumbs?
A. Breadcrumbs are clickable texts that help users navigate back to the previous pages.
Q. What is breadcrumb navigation?
A. Using breadcrumbs to navigate a website is called breadcrumb navigation.
Q. What is an orphan page?
A. An orphan page refers to a standalone webpage that has no links from other pages on the website it belongs to.
Q. Can breadcrumbs fix orphan page issues?
A. Unfortunately, no. Breadcrumbs have many benefits but fixing orphan page issues isn’t one of them.