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Dead ends are URLs that don’t have any links on them. In this case, users are left with no other choice than to use the back button. The user experience is generally poor on dead-end pages.
Orphan Page
Orphan pages can never be linked to other pages within the website. You can’t access or find the page unless you know the URL.
Do you think it harms your page?
Regardless of how valuable the content on that page is to SEO, and to the traffic on your site, it cannot be accessed by users. As a result, it is ineffective, and you are unlikely to catch the attention of your audience.
Search engines might view orphan pages as doorway pages, according to certain people. Page doorways are deliberately created pages that try to rank higher for SEO purposes but aren’t intended as such.
Those orphan pages will be penalized by the search engine if they are regarded as doorway pages. Nobody has yet confirmed whether or not this is true since it has been contested for so long. Because of this, you should always be cautious when creating the website’s page.
Dead-end Page
Dead-end pages give users no choice but to stay on the current page. Users have no option to click through to an outgoing page. Consider a store scenario, there are all your customers’ items in carts, but you are lacking registers to check out their purchases. Hence, the items are returned, and the customer leaves empty-handed. No sales made.
Considering this, it makes sense that you may lose some of your website’s value by not linking anywhere else, without giving users an alternative route.
Do you think it harms your page?
Because your user no longer has a reference point, you are losing your ability to give them that. The reader just reads what they see. The reader just reads what they see. You should link the page to another so that you can avoid this from happening so that your website can benefit as much as possible.
The majority of websites are built using templates, making it difficult to construct a dead end, as they always include links in their sidebars, banners, and footers.
Dead vs. Orphan Pages
While some SEO agencies generate orphaned pages specifically, so that information they have gathered is protected, the process is almost always technical. The error may be caused by missing content or an expiring link without indicating a status code.
You can at least find a dead-end page, but there is no indication of what to do, to put it mildly. A quick fix, such as linking their “About us” page to “Affiliates” page could solve the problem.
Adding a simple detour can fix all of these missed opportunities.
1. Pages of service
The majority of marketing sites just end after a few pages. They lack a call to action. Links within the website are few. A little footer is all that remains after the text ends.
It is important for websites to tell visitors exactly what to do next in a gentle manner so that they feel encouraged to take action.
Consider this: Encourage your visitors to get in touch with you by posting calls to action at the bottom of your services pages.
Consider this: Direct visitors to high-value, related pages of your site using internal links.
2. Blog Posts
Bloggers who are at their best will often include a question to encourage comments and dialogue. Poor bloggers refrain from even linking to their own posts.
Keep in mind that you are a marketer as well as have a helpful blog. You should post a few times per week to get your readers to visit your site more often.
Consider this: Make sure older posts still receiving traffic are checked in your Analytics. Go back and read it again. Could it be linked to anything else? Would it be linked to a newer post? These links should be incorporated along with the body text, or they can be included in a list of “related links”.
Consider this: Make sure every blog post links to at least one of your marketing pages.
3. Site Search “No Results” Page
Are there search tools on your site? Do visitors find anything on your site when nothing is available? One more way to get to a dead-end is to see a blank page with no results. Visitors may be surprised or frustrated by this dead end.
Several excellent suggestions for keeping visitors on “no results” pages:
- Are you asking about…?”
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Results Suggestions
- Search terms
Check your Google Analytics Site Search report to determine what your top searches should be.
4. Thanks page after checkout in e-commerce
Are you interested in creating an account? Can I check out without registering? This is a choice that everyone makes. I’m not here to register, just to buy that product.
An account on an eCommerce site is simply not perceived as beneficial. The process is perceived as a stumbling block to checkout. The cost can account for 30 percent to 50 percent of the sales on an eCommerce site.
You may, however, be able to get what you want (a new account) if you give people what they want first (the product). After the checkout, let them know how they’ll benefit from setting up an account. You may suggest saving their address and order history so they can have a faster check-out the next time.
How did it turn out? Forty percent of visitors who bought also created accounts.
Think about giving buyers the chance to create an account. Make sure they don’t feel forced to do so.
5. Thank you page for lead generation
The visitor hits the thank you page on any lead generation site that succeeds. What happens next? Your thank you page gives you an idea of what will happen next, but that doesn’t necessarily need to be a dead-end page.
Consider this: Make it possible for visitors to subscribe!
You may want to consider adding links to more credible content. Provide a link to your about section where you can share your service philosophy or best practices.
6. Thanks for subscribing to the newsletter page
You may want to direct some traffic to this thank you page. Subscribing to a newsletter shows that the visitor really likes you. You can use this to promote your social media account. Clicking the “like” button is as simple as giving your email address.
7. “Page Not Found” 404 Page
It is possible that despite your best efforts, there are some broken links on your site. No matter what you do, some users still land on such a 404 error page. This is unavoidable.
The internet is filled with cute, clever, and funny 404 pages. Make sure that one does not lead you nowhere.
Consider this: Similar to the “no results” page, point users in the right direction. Link to popular posts or marketing pages that are high-value.
Pro Tip: Include links to posts that convert at the highest rate of followers becoming subscribers.
Re-Route Traffic, Then Measure
To drive traffic, you put a lot of effort into it. To get people to your site, you need to work hard. Search engine marketing, email marketing, and social media are all essential. These visitors might even cost you a lot of money.
Do you maximize your time with them once you have them? Are they being directed down a dead-end street by your site?
Every website strives to maintain a steady flow of visitors so that they can achieve success both for themselves and their companies. Detours should be added at points where the flow breaks down. If the detour created a further dead end on the thank you page, add a second detour.
Once you’ve re-routed traffic, add an annotation into Google Analytics, so it will be easy to measure the increase in average pages per visit.
About the Author
My name’s Semil Shah, and I pride myself on being the last digital marketer that you’ll ever need. Having worked internationally across agile and disruptive teams from San Fransico to London, I can help you take what you are doing in digital to a whole next level.