Whether letting an old category just 404 out is OK

[BobGW]

Hello,

We've got some hidden categories that are still indexed in the search engines. If there are no links to these hidden categories, can we just let them 404 out and be OK SEO wise? We can't 301 redirect them. It's about 50 categories.

[Vahe.Arabian]

Hi Bob,

Just to extend on Jane's point and answer your question - if you 301 redirected every single page on your site, it would overtime slow down your website and if a lot of those pages don't have strong authority then it might be detected and potentially harm your sites rankings. A link to a quora post below provides additional reasons.

http://www.quora.com/Why-should-one-avoid-overusing-301-redirects

[JaneCopland]

Hi Bob,

This is fine - Google recommends 404 / 410 for removing pages - if you want them gone even quicker, have them return 404s and use Google's page removal tool.

[Kingof5]

1. Why can't you 301 them?

2. If you want them out of the index, try a manual URL removal via Webmaster Tools.

[Vahe.Arabian]

Hey Bob,

If these pages have been clearly hidden in the first place, then from my perspective  I already see no value in these pages.

Having non-important pages returning 404 error pages is ok. We only maintain the existing link juice or page authority for pages that have been taken down or reoptimised, in order to maintain existing SEO efforts or to direct users to an alternative page.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Vahe