Removing all internal links to a well-listed page

Has its own inbounds - want it not findable via the homepage

[Stefan]

I have a very popular page, number one on several common searches, that has attracted many inbounds from blogs and forums. It's otherwise very buried on the site, because it's not a particularly important page for us, and it's somewhat critical of the tourist situation in a certain country. In other words, I'd rather it not be found by regular visitors to the site, just by those who are using the SE's for a few particular kw phrases.

Today, I stripped out the last of the internal links above the page. There are several footnote pages below it that are only linked-to from this main one, giving a total of four pages that are now disassociated from the rest of the site (one of the footnote pages has almost as many inbound links as the page above it). All four pages do link out to a couple of other pages on the rest of the site, you just can't get to it from the domain.org.

The main non-linked page, and two of the footnotes, are rocking in the serps - they have their own inbounds - but now they're floating off in cyberspace compared to the rest. So, the point of my post - has anyone here done this before? I'm wondering if the loss of the internal links they had might cause the independent pages to slide down the serps, and disappear, or if they might cheerfully pursue their own way now? I like the traffic they get, because it's my only real editorial stuff on the website, so I'd hate to see them fade away - but at the same time, I'm starting to feel nervous about things and want them unfindable from the rest of the site.

<edit>typo</edit>

[edited by: Stefan at 11:33 pm (utc) on July 23, 2006]

[le_gber]

Stefan, if you cannot access the page from within your site I am pretty sure that they will start sliding down the SERPs as they have become 'satellite' pages (which is frowned upon by SEs)

[Stefan]

Thanks, le_gber.

Yeah, you might be right - I guess I'll watch them, and if they really go on the skids, I'll find a totally obscure, buried page on the rest of the site, and give them one link using vague anchor text.

I'll post back in the thread after I've seen what happens, probably within a week.

[microcars]

FYI: I have a single page on a PR 5 site that has never had any internal links to it.
Wait, I take that back I used to have ONE internal link to it about a year ago, then I got rid of it.
It only has a few outbound links.

There are only 2-3 inbound links from other sites to it to make sure it gets crawled.

It is currently a PR3 and has always shown up near the top when doing a search for the terms I want.

ymmv

[Stefan]

Thanks, microcars - that's encouraging.

Five days now and nothing has shifted. There were four internal links removed, with all of them crawled on a regular basis. Whatever is going to happen, it's not going to be tremendously immediate. I'm still hopeful that it will carry on well, independently.