Is it worth 301 redirecting an old backlink from a 404 to a landing page?
-
I was reviewing the 404 report in webmaster tools, when I found a 404 back link from a 10 year old forum topic on a very high DA site. It seems the poster did a direct hotlink to a pdf that was on our site a very long time ago, but is now gone so you get a standard "can not be found" page on our site.
Is it now worth redirecting the url to an appropriate landing page, considering the age of the post/ link and the sites DA, or is it not worth it because of the age of the link, its a forum, and we are still getting some juice from it anyway despite it being a 404, and won't get much more out of it.
Just want to know it good practice if I find many such links (very old links to now 404 pages)
Thanks
-
so in short seo wise not worth it, only worth it if there is real traffic.
its had no traffic in 4 years, so not worth it
thanks
-
Hey there
I think you've weighed up the pros and cons from it very accurately. I'm 50/50 on it at the moment as well, but getting this data would help me make the decision if I were in your shoes:
In your Google Analytics data, for the last six months can you dig up how much traffic was referred to your site via the domain in question. You can do this easily by going into GA and selecting Traffic Sources -> Sources -> Referrals on the left hand navigation. Once there, in the small search box on the right hand side type in the website's name - no need for .com etc. really.
Now have a look at your traffic - if there is a decent amount of traffic coming through (hitting the 404 page), I'd say it is worthwhile redirecting it, particularly if that forum is related to your industry. If there isn't a good level of traffic, I wouldn't bother redirecting.
I'm inclined to think that any SEO value, or link equity, that this link once had would have passed by now, so I'd make the decision more on if it's bringing in relative traffic.
Hope this helps.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is too high a frequency of 'money' keywords backlinks considered factor for Penguin penalties, even if the money keywords are on reputable pages ?
Is too high a frequency of 'money' keywords backlinks (eg. a money keyword backlink for moz.com would be "Seo tools") a considered factor for Penguin penalties even if the money keywords are only on reputable pages, with decent PA, DA and trust ?
Link Building | | jpeg800 -
Clean up over optimised backlink profile
A little while back a whole heap (around 5000) of exact match anchor text links showed up in my GWT profile. Now over time quite a few of them have dropped away, but according to Remoovem I've still got a 73% link percentage score for this particular anchor text (which is my main keyword), along with a 55% root percentage. Obviously this is a Bad Thing. What would be the best way to combat this over optimised profile?
Link Building | | schitz011
Disavow the links? Leave them be and work on more exact match links? When I look at some links listed in GWT, I can't find the link to my page anywhere in the source code. Can I ignore those domains or should they also go into a removal program? I've not received any manual penalty or notice in GWT, though I did see a drop of traffic last year around the early may 'Phantom' update. From which the site has never really recovered.0 -
Are these 15 links worth it
Hello, Are these 15 links worth the time?: http://seogadget.com/use-your-twitter-profile-for-link-building/ Since they're not site's with similar content, does all 15 count as juice-giving backlinks, or is it equivalent to just a couple of links from people closer to my niche? Thanks!
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
Gaining a backlink from Webopedia?
We have a client that wants to gain a back link from Webopedia. We have found a very relevent definition entry and there is an additional resources section that contains links to their competitors. Webopedia is owned/operated by Quinn St. and I have reached out to them to see if this is a posibility, but haven't heard back. Any experience in trying to acquire a link from this property? Thanks!
Link Building | | austinvoice0 -
Better to redirect domain or to link from home page?
Hi, I have a niche directory and sometimes clients remove themselves because they have discontinued their business practice. If they sometimes provide me with their own website (as they will no longer use it either), is it wiser for me to: a) directly point their URL 301 to my own directory b) keep their website as is, and add a url link to my directory in their homepage c) keep their website as is, and add an anchored link with the industry keyword to my directory Thanks! D
Link Building | | Demosthenes0 -
URL shortener and backlinks
Are there any SEO benefits drawn from creating backlinks with Google url shortener service(especially for the very deep links) or for the do-follow link juice I have to use a complete address?
Link Building | | SirMax0 -
Daily backlinks
Hi whats the number of backlinks i can create a day, for each keyword that i want to rank for, some say 5-10 or 20-30, other say there is no limited, if you create quality backlnks i know its not about quantity but quality ,but really whats a best answer? Thanks
Link Building | | xverticle0 -
Youtube Backlink
We've had our Youtube Channel fairly optimized for several months now. Part of that effort includes the link back to our site which is allowed on Youtube. When doing link research I see Youtube links being given credit to competitors but haven't seen Youtube show up in backlinks reports for our site yet. Is there any way to speed this up? Our Youtube page with the link has been indexed and a cached version of the page is in Google's SERPs. If there are any tricks to getting this going that anyone is aware of I'd like to hear it. *The link on Youtube returns a 200 and is followable. I'm using the SEOMOZ tool and Open Site Explorer to do backlinking research.
Link Building | | dgmiles0