Isolated URL - only linked from other isolated URLs

This means that the URL in question is isolated, as it can only be found via links from other isolated URLs.

Why is this important?

There are 3 other cases where a URL is classed as 'isolated':

• Isolated URL - only found via a canonical
• Isolated URL - only found via a redirect
• Isolated URL - only found via a noindex,follow

And here we have a situation where a URL does have incoming internal links, but only from other isolated URLs.

For example:

This situation means that, due to the noindex on Page B, Page C will end up isolated. Since Page E has no incoming links from any other pages, it also ends up isolated from the main link graph:

This can be difficult to recognise in practice, since Page E actually does have an incoming link (from Page C) - but it is not connected to the rest of the link graph.

This becomes more complicated still when you factor in the myriad complexities of a typical website, with lots of legacy rules or different content creators publishing pages, you can easily end up in a bit of a mess, with large chunks of pages becoming isolated, and easily slipping under the radar.

Since these pages are effectively the 'children' of isolated pages, they suffer the same problems as isolated pages;

• Little or no link equity, meaning the pages will struggle to rank
• Difficulty even remaining in the index
• Hard (or impossible) for website users to even find the pages by browsing the website

What does the Hint check?

This Hint will trigger for any internal URL that has no incoming internal links, except from isolated URLs.

Examples that trigger this Hint:

Consider the URL: https://example.com/page-e

This URL only receives incoming internal links from pages which are themselves isolated, either;

• Isolated URL - only found via a canonical
• Isolated URL - only found via a redirect
• Isolated URL - only found via a noindex,follow

The Hint would trigger for this URL: https://example/com/page-e

How do you resolve this issue?

Since these pages are the children of isolated URLs, there are two possible solutions:

1. Resolve the situation causing isolated URLs in the first place
2. Point some links at the children pages, in order to connect them to the rest of the link graph 

Either, or both of these approaches should at least solve the issue of isolated children URLs.