404 Page Error Redirection?

Question

I have a blog on wordpress and i got like 150 pages according to Google webmaster that appears 404 error. Now there are so many plugins that says it will help redirect them to your home page so there remains no error. Recently one SEO suggested me not to do that coz using 301 redirection should only be used for redirected pages and if there is no redirection than let them be 404. Now i don't know what is the reason behind this but sounds logical and yet seeing so many plugins a little confusing to me. So, help me here please, should i use plugins to redirect or leave everything 404? will doing 404 kill my pagerank (1) ?

Answer 1

Hi,

A 404 error message is the standard HTTP standard response code which is returned when the visitor cannot communicate with the server. the "best" 404 page would be one that matched your site so that visitors wouldn't get confused. The way to go about it can vary depending on your hosting company too. I have Yahoo hosting for two of my sites and found that I could not upload a .htaccess file, but I could construct a custom 404 including my full navigation. I gave it the file name that Yahoo specified and it works just fine.

Answer 2

A 404 error means "not found". This is usually the page you get when you make a mistake spelling page name in a site, or if the page is deleted or moved. The problem is that the standard 404 page is ugly and unhelpful.



404 - Responds with an error, but shows a custom page to help your visitors .

200 - If a page is missing, it's replaced with the custom error page .

302 - If the page is missing, it's replaced with a temporary redirect to a custom error page .

301 - Redirects errors to either a custom error page, or some other page in the site .

Answer 3

404 errors to to internal navigation errors, (Broken Links) should ideally be fixed at the source, the poor second choice is to have a custom 404 error handler or custom 404 page, you should e able to find a wp plugin for that, it's not redirecting, just providing a more friendly page.



Any external links from other sites that are pointing at dead pages should be handled by 301 redirects in order to maintain the search ranking benifit.

Answer 4

A 301 redirect is the suitable thank you to handle maximum 404 errors from a search engine optimization viewpoint. Google is conscious what a 301 redirect is and could credit one-way links to the 404 internet site to the redirected internet site (you don't get one hundred% credit recommendations you, in spite of the undeniable fact that it close, and the suitable you're able to do).