Do you like to know how to find hidden pages on a website? Then you have completed the first step by visiting this website. The hidden pages could be intentional or accidental; accidental means there could be a broken link that makes a particular page invisible).
Fortunately, there are numerous ways to find a hidden page or broken links on a website including using the robots.txt file, log files, sitemap, online tools, etc.
Without wasting much time, let’s explore the hidden pages and how to find hidden pages on a website.
Pages that aren’t accessed through a menu or navigation are known as hidden webpages. They can really be hard to discover, even if a reader can see them via anchor text or internal links. As discussed above, hidden pages are not always intentional; they could be accidental.
Pages are usually hidden to keep users away from sensitive information shared among website administrators and management. However, that isn’t always the reality; broken links may exist that the site owner is unaware of.
Access to a certain website is not feasible or valuable when they’re in construction or maintenance status. Another reason might be that accessing specific pages on a typical website necessitates login information. Whatever the reasons, we will resolve how to find hidden pages on a website in a few steps.
There are several ways to find hidden pages on a website; robots.txt, manual process, log files, Google search, online tools, etc. To assist you, I personally tested all of the techniques and discuss them below.
Also, you do not even have to be a nerd to use these methods as long as you follow all of the procedures thoroughly.
Google search is the easiest method to find any hidden pages across the Internet. You just have to type the keyword, website, and then press the enter button. Whether you are using Windows, Mac, or even a smartphone, you can easily find a page.
website[space]site:basicwebguide.com
(Replace the “website” with your page keyword and “basicwebguide.com” with your desired site)
Robots.txt is the most effective method to find out the pages on a website. You just have to type the site name on the search engine with robots.txt which discloses the hidden page or tells you if the owner has restricted any pages.
basicwebguide.com/robots.txt
In the above case, crawlers and visitors are restricted to the admin board only. It also displays pages under the “disallow” tag if any page is hidden then you can find the page by using other discussed methods.
Many times, how to find hidden pages on a website simply doesn’t work, you need to look for the hidden link. To find a hidden link on a website, follow the below steps.
Online tools to find the hidden pages might not much effective yet it is worth trying. One such fantastic tool to find hidden pages is URL Fuzzer in which you just have to enter the website URL or broken link (if desired).
On several occasions, website owners accidentally hide their own pages. When your site grows larger, you completely forget about the pages or links you used to hide. In this case, you can try these quick follow-ups to find hidden pages on your own website:
It is all about how to find hidden pages on a website using simple methods. If you’ve read this far, you’ve realized that there are a plethora of methods for discovering hidden pages and broken links on any website.
By using the above methods, you can not only find hidden pages on others but also can find your own website. The frequently used techniques are using the robots.txt file, Google search, source code file, log files, etc.
I hope you enjoyed this post, which includes a step-by-step method to identify any hidden pages on the website. If you have any trouble while putting these techniques into practice, please let me know in the comments section.
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