Back-links pointing to dead pages

transitarea

Supreme Member

Oct 19, 2013

1,242

165

• Mar 27, 2016

• #1

I have back-links that are pointing to pages that I already removed from my site. Will that hard SEO ? How can I solve this ?

 

mudbutt

Elite Member

Jr. VIP

Jun 23, 2010

2,141

5,063

• Mar 27, 2016

• #2

You can 301 the pages to the root, but if you have alot of pages that you deleted, I would only choose the ones with the strongest backlinks. Too many can be a footprint.

 

C

Chiefjop

Senior Member

Mar 25, 2013

872

183

• Mar 27, 2016

• #3

Well I would redirect all with a 301 to the root because dead backlinks are bad too.

 

transitarea

Supreme Member

Oct 19, 2013

1,242

165

• Mar 27, 2016
• Thread Starter Thread Starter

• #4

So if I ignore this it will affect SEO?

 

J

jandesigner1

Newbie

Mar 1, 2016

4

0

• Mar 27, 2016

• #5

You can better utilize those backlinks by redirecting the 404 pages to the appropriate new relevant pages so the link juice don't waste. This way you can transfer the link juice to the new pages.

 

charliebrooker

Senior Member

Feb 16, 2014

861

328

• Mar 27, 2016

• #6

I'd 301 them to new pages on the same topic, rather than to the root domain.

 

loedown

Elite Member

Jun 29, 2009

1,863

547

• Mar 27, 2016

• #7

Make sure you 301 redirect those and you should be fine.

 

christianbed

Elite Member

Aug 17, 2011

1,588

1,012

• Mar 27, 2016

• #8

Yeah, no reason to redirect every 404 to the root. There's nothing wrong with 404's, but if you're trying to be tidy and improve user experience, you can do one of two things:
1. Redirect the 404's to relevant pages/posts (don't send them all to the root, though)
2. Create a custom 404 page that has links leading to your other pages with a message like: While this page doesn't exist anymore, check out one of our other pages here:

 

clevelandslim

Elite Member

Nov 15, 2008

2,655

233

• Mar 28, 2016

• #9

If you need to change page, I suggest that you use a server-side 301 redirect. The 301 redirect has permanently moved to another page. Because dead back links are not worthy.