What is the best way to handle links that lead to a 404 page
-
Hi Team Moz,
I am working through a site cutover with an entirely new URL structure and have a bunch of pages that could not, would not or just plain don't redirect to new pages.
Steps I have taken:
-
Multiple new sitemaps submitted with new URLs and the indexing looks solid
-
used webmasters to remove urls with natural result listings that did not redirect and produce urls
-
Completely built out new ppc campaigns with new URL structures
-
contacted few major link partners
Now here is my question:
I have a pages that produce 404s that are linked to in forums, slick deals and stuff like that which will not be redirected. Is disavowing these links the correct thing to do?
-
-
Hi,
Definitely don't use disavow unless you think that the links are poor quality and could harm your site, or are actively harming it right now. That is what disavow is for, not for removing your 404 pages.
There is no harm waiting for Google to remove the 404 pages on its own, especially if you have used its URL removal tool as well. If there are any good links in the backlink profile of the 404ing pages, do attempt to contact the webmaster and have them changed - most people are more than happy to do this.
-
If the links are good ones, 301 redirect to a good page, you don't have to have a blank page at that url.
if they are bad links just leave them. if that are 404'ing then they can do you no harm.
The only 404's that can do you harm are ones from your own internal links, because it means you have link juice leaks. fix any if you have them
-
Edit the link backs you were getting to the 404 pages and point it to the new pages. Another option is to host a blank page (with header and footer) on the 404 page and 301 redirect it to the new pages. the page rank/ link profile will get passed to the new page.
-
Well, the correct / best thing to do would be to try and get all of those links edited and pointed to live pages. That said, if you don't know who posted the links or have no way to get in touch with those who do, then it can be very awkward to achieve - still, link reclamation can be a great way to help with new links, seeing as they are already pointing to your site.
-Andy
-
If you feel the links are harming you or your SEO efforts in anyway, you can go ahead and disavow them. However, the disavow link does not remove the links so it does not help with 404 errors, but will ignore them when it comes to your rankings.
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
-
Dealing with broken internal links/404s. What's best practice?
I've just started working on a website that has generated lots (100s) of broken internal links. Essentially specific pages have been removed over time and nobody has been keeping an eye on what internal links might have been affected. Most of these are internal links that are embedded in content which hasn't been updated following the page's deletion. What's my best way to approach fixing these broken links? My plan is currently to redirect where appropriate (from a specific service page that doesn't exist to the overall service category maybe?) but there are lots of pages that don't have a similar or equivalent page. I presume I'll need to go through the content removing the links or replacing them where possible. My example is a specific staff member who no longer works there and is linked to from a category page, should i be redirecting from the old staff member and updating the anchor text, or just straight up replacing the whole thing to link to the right person? In most cases, these pages don't rank and I can't think of many that have any external websites linking to them. I'm over thinking all of this? Please help! 🙂
Technical SEO | | Adam_SEO_Learning0 -
What's the best way to handle product filter URLs?
I've been researching and can't find a clear cut answer. Imagine you have a product category page e.g. domain/jeans You've a lot of options as to how to filter the results domain/jeans?=ladies,skinny,pink,10 or domain/jeans/ladies-skinny-pink-10 or domain/jeans/ladies/skinny?=pink,10 And in this how do you handle titles, breadcrumbs etc. Is the a way you prefer to handle filters and why do you do it that way? I'm trying to make my mind up as some very big names handle this differently e.g. http://www.next.co.uk/shop/gender-women-category-jeans/colour-pink-fit-skinny-size-10r VS https://www.matalan.co.uk/womens/shop-by-category/jeans?utf8=✓&[facet_filter][meta.tertiary_category][Skinny]=on&[facet_filter][variants.meta.size][Size+10]=on&[facet_filter][meta.master_colour][Midwash]=on&[facet_filter][min_current_price][gte]=6.0&[facet_filter][min_current_price][lte]=18.0&per=36&sort=
Technical SEO | | RodneyRiley0 -
301 or 404 old Event pages
I have a site that lists events and then removes them from the site once the date and event has passed. Is it best to let the old event page 404 or 301 back up to a subfolder that lists the current events?
Technical SEO | | Marketing_Today0 -
Confused on footer links (Which are best practices for footer links on other websites?)
Hello folks, We are eCommerce web design and Development Company and we give do follow links of our website to every projects which we have done with specific keywords. So now the concern is we are seeing huge amount of back-links are being generated from single root domain for particular keyword in webmaster tools. So what should be the best way to practice this? Should we give no follow attribute to it or can use our company logo with link? LtMjHER.png
Technical SEO | | CommercePundit0 -
Page for Link Building
Hello guys, My question is about link building and reciprocal links. Since many directories request a reciprocal link, makes me wonder if is not better to create a unique page in the website only for this kind of links. What do you guys recommend? Thanks in advance, PP
Technical SEO | | PedroM0 -
Can 404 results from external links hurt site ranking?
Hello, I'm helping a university transition to a brand new website. In some cases the URLs will change between the old site and new site. They will put 301 redirects in place to make sure that people who have old URLs will get redirected properly to the new URLs. However they also have a bunch of old pages that they aren't using anymore. They don't really care if people still try to get to them (because they don't think many will), but they do care about the overall search engine rankings. I know that if a site has internal 404 links, that could hurt rankings. However can external links that return a 404 hurt rankings? Ryan
Technical SEO | | GreenHatWeb0 -
What is the best way to optimize a page for a magazine
Hi i have a serious problem with a website that i am building http://www.cheapflightsgatwick.com/ with reference to letting the search engines know what the magazine is about. I am building a holiday magazine which will focus on holiday news, cheap deals and holiday reviews. I am wanting the home page to feature for the following keywords holiday news, holiday magazine, holiday ideas, best holiday deals, but the problem i have is, i have tried putting an introduction on the home page but it looks out of place, so what is the best way for me to let google know about what the site is about and to get it ranking well in the search engines any help and advice would be great
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
What's the best way to transplant a blogger blog to another domain?
So I have this client who's got a killer blogger blog—tons of inbound links, great content, etc. He wants to move it onto his new website. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there isn't a single way to 301 the darn thing. I can do meta refresh and/or JavaScript redirects, but those won't transfer link juice, right? Is there a best practice here? I've considered truncating each post and adding a followed "continue reading…" link, which would of course link to the full post on the client's new site. It would take a while and I'm wondering if it would be worth it, and/or if there are any better ideas out there. Sock it to me.
Technical SEO | | TheEspresseo0