Regarding 404 on expired domain

I bought an expired domain a few weeks ago to use as a moneysite. but i'm not sure what i should do with the 404 pages.

i have read a lot of things. some have said that you should just 301 to homepage. other have said that it's better in google eyes to just keep it as a 404 with a custom page (my website is not very niche relevant with the backlinks/anchors)

about 60% of the backlinks from the expired domain go to the homepage, which is good.

is doing a 301 the best thing to do? or should i just leave the 404s there.

I would create a useful 404 and leave it at that for now. When traffic picks up you can look at the existing backlinks and 301 anything that seems worth it to fresh and relevant content.

You can find the pages of your domain that get the most links and 301 redirect ONLY these pages to home.

60% to homepage is quite a lot. How are links spread through the inner pages? Are they all over the place or are most of the links pointing to only a handful of inner pages?

Nargil said:

60% to homepage is quite a lot. How are links spread through the inner pages? Are they all over the place or are most of the links pointing to only a handful of inner pages?

Click to expand...

They are all over the place. sent you a PM

Then redirect all 404 pages manually to other related pages to your blog don't redirect all pages to homepage.