Is it worth 301 redirecting an old backlink from a 404 to a landing page?

[PaddyDisplays]

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

[PaddyDisplays]

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

[TomRayner]

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.