How do you like to use Not linked pages on your website?

Not linked pages are live pages of your website that don’t show in your site’s navigation menus. Your visitors can still view them through a variety of ways including text links, buttons, and linked images.

These handy pages can be used for all sorts of purposes. You can use a Not linked page to host a price sheet to send to prospective clients,  your freebie or giveaway event, or even a form for client intakes. Possibilities are endless! 

How do you like to use Not linked pages on your site? Do you have any great examples or learnings?

Share in the comments below!

I use it for private pages, I use the url for that page in emails, social media, but don't want it on my nav bar. I also put my blog page in the unlinked section while using a summary block page as the front facing blog page. 

Please clarify. I'm a newbie.  I want to update my current published home page. Can I move it to hidden while I work on it? Will the "old home page" remain active for visitors until I replace it by dragging the new page back to the top. Thank you.

@MLH64510

In general I suggest making a duplicate of your home page and make sure it is in Not Linked. The duplicate should go there by default but it doesn't hurt to verify.

Then make the changes you want to the duplicate home page. When the duplicate is ready to put into place swap it into place of the current home page. You'll need to switch the names, the URL Slugs, and set the new home page as the home page for the site.

Thank you for your quick response! I've made the changes to the new home page and I understand about switching the new page title, names etc.  Should I also switch the names of the OLD page? I assume the site is "broken" while I perform the swap and best to do in the off hours??  Thanks for your advice.  

I made it work. Thank you!

7 hours ago, MLH64510 said:

Should I also switch the names of the OLD page?

The URL of the old page is the critical thing that needs to change. That must be done first. So the new page can take on the URL of the old page.

Quote

I assume the site is "broken" while I perform the swap and best to do in the off hours??

Not so much broken but not in a state that you want the site to be in. Let's look at an example.

Let's say you have a homepage with the URL /my-home. You make a duplicate to update. The new (duplicate) page takes on the URL /my-home-1. You update the new page and you are ready to make the swap. First you go into the current homepage and change the URL to /my-home-old.

Now at this point even though the URL has changed SS still knows that this page is the homepage because it has the homepage icon next to it listed in Pages.

Now you change the URL of the new page to /my-home and set it to the homepage by clicking the SET AS HOMEPAGE in the Page Settings.

I didn't go into the moving pages in and out of Pages Main Navigation/Not Linked but the above covers the basics of your site is not broken but not in your desired state.

Once you get used to making these kinds of swaps it only takes a minute or two and so the impacts are negligible.

I use not-linked pages in several ways: 

• to host photos for forums that require external photo storage
• to host private documents for use during and after client calls. Only clients with the link can get to those pages
• to host unrestricted Calendly scheduling pages. Clients (and my wife) can schedule any open time in my calendar, including times outside normal hours. The Calendly links in other places are much more restrictive in the available hours.

Please elaborate. I'm a complete novice. I'd like to make some changes to my currently published home page. Is it possible for me to hide it while I work on it? Will visitors be able to access the "old home page" until I replace it by dragging the new page back to the top? I use it for tech sites and email and social networking, but I don't want it in my menu bar. My blog page is also in the unlinked section, with the front-facing blog page being a summary block page.

1 hour ago, SarahMark said:

I'd like to make some changes to my currently published home page. Is it possible for me to hide it while I work on it?

Yes!

Quote

Will visitors be able to access the "old home page" until I replace it by dragging the new page back to the top?

Yes!

I suggest flipping it around though. Duplicate your current home page and name it something like home page new and put it in the Not Linked area. Leave the current home where it is.

Work on your new page.

When it is ready to put in place. Change the URL of the current home page to something like /home-old. Change the new home page URL to the former URL of the now old home page. Presumably something like /home. Also change the other fields for the pages. Titles and Navigation Titles.

Make the new home page the site home page by clicking the SET AS HOMEPAGE link.

Then drag the pages around to put them in the appropriate navigations areas.

There will be a few minutes where your site will be in a state of flux but as long as you get through the process fairly quickly there will be little noticeable impact on your site.

For the most part you can do the steps in just about any order. The only critical bit is the URL changes as you can't have two URLs that are the same, at the same time.

@Jo_SQSP

Does SS have a support article on this scenario? I went looking for one but no immediate joy.

If there isn't one is would be grand if SS could write a clear step by step with pics and stuff to help folks with this very common task.

There are articles on how to duplicate pages and move them around in the navigation area but none, that I can find, covering making a new version of a page and then swapping it into place for the old.

In my experience, unlinked pages work well for creating pages with a very narrow focus that you may want to use for campaigns. Because of the duplicate feature, it is also an opportunity to test performance by creating a few pages with different messaging and creative assets when you are using paid ads. Under the SEO tab for each page, you can also toggle the button to "hide page from search results" if you are running a limited or seasonal campaign and don't intend for the page to show up in search engines. 

On 12/29/2021 at 12:10 AM, MLH64510 said:

Thank you for your quick response! I've made the changes to the new home page and I understand about switching the new page title, names etc.  Should I also switch the names of the OLD page? I assume the site is "broken" while I perform the swap and best to do in the off hours??  Thanks for your advice.  

Yes, change it, it is necessary . URL of old page may be harmful. 

I like using the Not Linked section for SEO purposes! 🙂 Adding pages in the backend that have FAQ's and further keywords has seemed to be good for both my site and my clients!

You can also create a blog post archive in the unlinked section of your site. If using 7.1 you can duplicate any post to that blog and then delete it off your published site. The unlinked blog page doesn't have to be enabled for it to still work this way. 

Creating a blog post archive this way sounds like a very good idea, thank you. I will definitely look into it. You can also make them into landing pages for specific marketing campaigns, which is also something I'm considering at the moment. 

Hello! I have a hidden page that I use for a store because I sell a product in one industry I'm in that's not related to the other industry. It has a direct subdomain link. How do I make this a standalone page without the header or footer pulled from my main website? 

5 hours ago, MeeshBurb said:

How do I make this a standalone page without the header or footer pulled from my main website?

Please post the URL for a page on your site where we can see your issue.

A link to the backend of the your site won’t work for us, i.e. a url that contains /config/.

Please set up a site-wide password, if your site is not public and you've not already done so.

Post the password here.

Adding a site-wide password does not allow anyone to alter your site. It only allows those with the password to see your site.

Please read the site-wide password and how to share a link documentation to understand how they work.

We can then take a look at your issue.

You may find How to post a forum question post useful.

I use Not Linked pages for SO many things! I have a "Fun Stuff" page that contains interactive puzzles that I pull up into the Main Nav every so often just to increase dwell time and increase my site's visibility to search engines. I keep this page both enabled and visible to search engines. 

I have other not linked pages that I keep enabled but hide from search engines... for instance, a code and resources page that I share with the other designers on our team.  Since it's enabled, they can just use the direct slug to get to it but I don't have to worry about random people finding it through search. 

I have other pages that I keep both disabled and hidden from search engines - these pages are for my eyes only and are usually pages where I'm experimenting with something or even my own personal resources. I even have a "Menu" page that I use to store all of the things that I like to cook at home so that I can meal plan!  Hahaha! 

With my clients, I always out a Playground page in the Not Linked section and make it both disabled and hidden from SEO so that they can play and experiment without fear.  I also always out a Training Videos page in their Not Linked pages. I hide this one from search engines but keep it enabled so that they can just add the URL slug "/training" to live site and have access to resources. 

Hello! I'm still new to this stuff. Not sure if this question follows under this topic but, when I add a section to one of my pages, it then automatically adds to all my pages. How do I separate it in the way one section is only added to one page? Thanks! 

16 hours ago, monochro said:

Not sure if this question follows under this topic but, when I add a section to one of my pages, it then automatically adds to all my pages. How do I separate it in the way one section is only added to one page?

Your question doesn't follow. What I think you are seeing is that Pages like Blog or Store (collections of items) when a section is added, adds that section to all the list pages of that collection type. That is how SS designed it to work. You can't add sections to product detail or blog post pages.

I suggest stating what effect you want to achieve in a new thread and perhaps we can help.

Personally, I have found Not linked pages to be a convenient way to provide additional resources or information to specific visitors, such as exclusive content for a select audience or special promotions.

6 hours ago, DanJace said:

Pages that are not linked to other pages on your site may not be discovered by search engines, and as a result, they will not contribute to your website's overall visibility and ranking in search results. 

Pages that are enabled are discoverable through sitemap.xml.

Search engine crawlers are much less dependant on a site linking to other pages of the site since the advent of sitemap.xml in 2005.

How do I re-add pages that are not currently linked back to my navigation bar? 

1 hour ago, jsmcconnell said:

How do I re-add pages that are not currently linked back to my navigation bar?

Are you asking how to you make a page that is in the Not Linked area appear in your Navigation?

If so drag the page into Main Navigation.