Does Google penalize for having a bunch of Error 404s?

[Interesting.com]

If a site removes thousands of pages in one day, without any redirects, is there reason to think Google will penalize the site for this?

I have thousands of subcategory index pages. I've figured out a way to reduce the number, but it won't be easy to put in redirects for the ones I'm deleting. They will just disappear.

There's no link juice issue. These pages are only linked internally, and indexed in Google. Nobody else links to them.

Does anyone think it would be better to remove the pages gradually over time instead of all at once?

Thanks!

[krissy-cca]

I'd remove them gradually and then remove them out of the SERP via Webmaster Tools. Ensure you remove all links to those deleted page or else you'll keep getting 404's cropping up

[G-Force]

Hi Chris,

I would suggest that you don't remove all them overnight, you would probably be better to remove them over time.

Removing pages is something normal, I remember reading Rand saying that a high percentage of the OSE index pages were returning a 404 when trying to reach them again.

Of course, for best practice, I would also recommend you 301 redirect those pages to their new version, even if it might not be easy, it will be usefull, not only for search engines, but also for user that might have bookmarked the page.

Best regards,
Guillaume Voyer.