How to Identify Orphaned Pages Using Screaming Frog and Google Analytics

June 11, 2024 at 11:55:03 AM

TL;DR Use Screaming Frog and the Google Analytics API to find orphaned pages on your website. Orphaned pages are live but lack internal links, causing poor search engine performance or non-indexing. Configure Screaming Frog to crawl your sitemap, connect to Google Analytics, and analyze the "Sitemaps" report to identify these pages. Prioritize and improve internal links to enhance visibility and indexation.

How to Identify Orphaned Pages Using Screaming Frog and Google Analytics

Orphaned pages are live pages on your site that lack internal links, causing them to underperform in search engines or not get indexed. You can identify these pages using Screaming Frog and the Google Analytics API. Screaming Frog simplifies this process by crawling your sitemap.xml file and connecting to Google Analytics. It then compares this data against a traditional site crawl to identify any orphaned pages.

Steps to Identify Orphaned Pages

  1. Open Screaming Frog: Launch the Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool.
  2. Crawl XML Sitemap:
    • Navigate to Configuration > Crawl Config > Crawl > Crawl Linked XML Sitemaps.
    • Insert your XML sitemap link.
  3. Connect to Google Analytics:
    • Go to Configuration > API Access and connect your Google Analytics account.
  4. Crawl New URLs:
    • In the General section, select "Crawl New URLs Discovered in Google Analytics 4".
  5. Start Crawl: Begin the crawl of your website and let it complete.
  6. Crawl Analysis:
    • After the crawl finishes, go to Crawl Analysis > Configure.
    • Ensure "Sitemaps" and "Analytics" are checked.
  7. View Orphaned Pages:
    • Go to the "Sitemaps" report in the right-hand sidebar to see all the orphaned pages.

Analyze the identified orphaned pages to determine their priority. For high-priority pages, develop a strategy to improve internal linking. Enhanced internal links can lead to better visibility and improved indexation for these pages.

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