How Fixing Orphaned Content can help you rank HIGHER on Google

Written by Sandra Argese
on 17 Jun 2020

You want your content to rank higher up in Google, right? But how’s Google going to know to do this if it doesn’t even know your content actually exists? For SEO purposes, this is where a focus on orphaned content comes in handy.

“If It Isn’t on Google, It Doesn’t Exist,” Wikipedia Co-Founder Jimmy Wales says.

We’re all competing for the prime spot on Google. After all, we want our content to be seen by as many people as possible.

Considering Orphaned Content can help you climb that ladder, and get as close as possible to that almighty first page of search results.

(READ: SEO Know-How: Frequently Asked Questions About SEO)

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But what is orphaned content?

Orphaned content isn’t necessarily a good thing. In fact, we don’t want our content to become orphaned content. That’s a massive no-no, especially from a digital marketing perspective.

Orphaned content becomes orphaned content because it doesn’t receive any exposure (or little exposure) in any other place online.

It could be a blog post or video, for example, that isn’t LINKED anywhere else.

This is why YOUR website (or another website) needs to LINK to that content, especially if you want it to rank higher on Google.

The less places your link is found, the less important Google will consider it. The lower it is ranked. The MORE places it’s found, the HIGHER Google will consider it, and the HIGHER it is ranked.

Let’s say you have a blog. Within that blog, you should provide links (maybe two or three) to your other contextual links or blogs.

(READ: Top 3 Reasons Why SMS Marketing is Effective)

These contextual links provide the reader with additional information they might find handy, or can give background to the topic at hand. That’s providing your reader with more value, and increases the chances of getting your content a better Google ranking. It’s a win-win for everyone! Handy tip – Don’t just include the link itself. Create a hyperlink, with the wording using the title of that particular blog, post or page.

Let’s re-iterate

Your posts and pages on your website should have other INTERNAL LINKS included. Want a live example? Take a look through this blog post. You’ll see that we’ve dotted some of our own blog links throughout this exact blog. Google’s going to see it in more places, and recognise it as a more important piece of content.

(READ: 5 Ways to Be More Inclusive In Social Media Content Creation)

Do you want to learn more about orphaned content and search engine optimisation (SEO)? Get in touch with us today.

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