Pages that show in Open Site Explorer that show as 404's in search

[NileCruises]

When I use Site Explorer to find our Top Pages there are a whole series of pages like this: http://www.nile-cruises-4u.co.uk/mybestbets/mybestbets-culture.html which I think were created when we had a Bulletin Board on the site.

Although they are showing in the Top Pages results when you visit the page you get the following error message:

HTTP Error 404.0 - Not Found

The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

What implications result from these pages still showing in results and what action should we take without messing up our search rankings?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

[RyanKent]

If you wish to speed up the process, change the header response to 410 instead of 404 for any pages you know are gone.

[NileCruises]

Thanks very much for such a detailed reply Ryan. I think I'll wait for the link to be removed as you suggest it will be.

Cheers,

Colin

[RyanKent]

404 errors are a natural part of the internet. Pages are added and removed from sites on a regular basis. With that said, when a page is removed from your site, you should take one of two actions:

• redirect the URL to another very similar page on your site. If you have a page on a Nile 2-day cruise and that page is removed, you may wish to redirect visitors to your Nile 3-day cruise page. This redirection is helpful for users as they find content similar to what they were seeking.

• allow the page to 404. If you no longer have a similar page, then go ahead and allow the URL to provide a 404 error. This tells search engines the page no longer exists and they will, over time, remove the page from the index.

If you choose the latter approach, be sure you offer a helpful 404 page on your site. Provide your site's normal navigation, a link to a HTML site map, a search box and a most popular articles widget can all be helpful.

The worst thing you can do is allow your server to return an error message not designed for users. Presently, your 404 error page is provided by your server. The error message is unfriendly and not helpful for users.

As an fyi, the URL you shared does not show up in Google.co.uk search results so you have no concerns from that perspective. The link will likely be removed from OSE in 1 or 2 updates.