404 Redirecting to the home page
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One of my clients that is managing their own server and website recently moved servers. Which then broke their custom 404 page. Instead of fixing this or putting the site back to the old server they redirected the 404 to the home page.
I've been working on getting their 404's appropriately redirected, or old urls redirection using a 301 for a month or two.
I read the HTTP Status Codes best practices. It just discusses usability.
What technical seo back lash can happen?
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Thank you, The 301's are only being used for content that has been moved.
I hope the developer takes care of this ASAP.
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You should either get the old 404 page back or create a new one. A good 404 page can lower your bounce rate significantly. If you redirect what should be a 404 to your home page, you could end up with engines indexing those pages with the homepage content, setting yourself up for a duplicate content situation.
301 redirects should be used if you have content that is moved. It shouldn't be used to redirect non-existent pages somewhere else, and it should be kept in your htaccess until there are no more links pointing to the old URL.
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