Do 404 Errors hurt SEO ?
-
I recently did a crawl test and it listed over 10,000 pages, but around 282 of them generated 404 errors (bad links)
I'm wondering how much this hurts overall SEO and if its something I should focus on fixing asap ?
Thanks.
-
As Alan said, you have a ton of old 404 pages with no one linking to them and they're not being indexed in the SERPs, just let them 404 because that's what Google recommends to get rid of them. If you are getting links and traffic for your 404's pages, you definitely want to make it a priority to 301 redirect them. The grunt work is looking at each URL and determining its value.
Two best responses on this issue that I have found so far.
From the Google Webmaster Central Blog: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/search?q=%22404+week%22
Rand Fishkin himself: http://www.seomoz.orgwww.seomoz.org/blog/are-404-pages-always-bad-for-seo
-
One other point, if you had external links pointing to the missing links, you should 301 then to a relevant page
-
Just what I was looking for!
Thanks!
-
Yes and no. having a 404 that the SE finds is not going to hurt you, it will eventualy remove it from its index, but if you have a broken link pointing to a 404 then yes you are leaking PR. Seeing you did a scan, that usely follow links, i think you must have the later.
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
-
404 Errors flaring on nonexistent or unpublished pages – should we be concerned for SEO?
Hello! We keep getting "critical crawler" notifications on Moz because of firing 404 codes. We've checked each page and know that we are not linking to them anywhere on our site, they are not published and they are not indexed on Google. It's only happened since we migrated our blog to Hubspot so we think it has something to do with the test pages their developers had set up and that they are just lingering in our code somewhere. However, we are still concerned having these codes fire implies negative consequences for our SEO. Is this the case? Should we be concerned about these 404 codes despite the pages from those URLs not actually existing? Thank you!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DebFF
Chloe0 -
WhoIs, SEO & Privacy
Is WHOIS data used by Google as a ranking signal? We had a website that had some bad SEO work done a while ago hence took a knock, If I use the same WHOIS data on a new site is that likely to cause an issue? Also I don't like the idea of providing too much information for privacy reasons, so have tended to stick to general email addresses and department names rather than actual personal information. Is that a bad approach?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoman100 -
Is SEO as Effective on AJAX Sites?
Hey Everyone, I had a potential client contact me about doing SEO for their site and I see that they have an AJAX site where all the content is rendered dynamically via AJAX. I've been doing SEO for years, but never had a client with an AJAX site. I did a little research and see how you can setup alternative pages (or snapshots as Google calls them) with the actual content so the pages are crawlable and will get indexed, but I'm wondering if that is as effective as optimizing static HTML pages or if Google treats AJAX page alternatives as less trustworthy/valuable. Also, does having the site in AJAX effect link building and social sharing? With the link structure, it seems there could be some issues with pointing links and passing link juice to internal pages Thanks! Kurt
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kurt_Steinbrueck1 -
Recommendation for Small Business SEO
I'm trying to find a company that can provide SEO services for our small business. We have a limited budget, $500 a month or less. We have staff that can do much of the work in terms of correcting content issues, changing content, etc. However, I'm not an SEO expert and we need someone to help us by understanding where we are now and providing ongoing guidance on what we should be doing to improve and also in helping with execution where possible and/or necessary. Can anyone recommend a company that might be able to help us with this within our budget constraints?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Careerbags0 -
Ajax website and SEO
Hi all, A client of mine has a website similar to Pintrest. All in Ajax/. So imagine an ajax-grid based animal lover site called domain.com. The domain has three different Categories Cats, Dogs, Mice. When you click on a category, the site doesn't handle the URL and doesn't change the domain So instead of the domain going from domain.com to domain.com/cats, it uses the Ajax script and just shows all the cat pins. and when you click on each pin/post it opens a page such as domain.com/Pin/123/PostTitle It doesn't reference the category. However a page domain.com/cats does exist and you can go there directly. Is this an SEO issue for not grouping all pins under a category? How does Google handle Ajax these days, it use to be real bad but if Pintrest is going so well i'm assuming times have changed? Any other things to be wary of for a grid based/ajax site? I am happy to pay for an hour or two for a more in depth audit/tips if you can feed back on the above. Fairly urgent. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Profero1 -
WIll Splash Page Triggered Only for iPhones Hurt SEO
Background We are in the process of launching a website where ticket inventory and processing are handled by a third party. Our primary means of traffic generation (at least at first) will be through SEO traffic. One of the things that they require of us is a script that will detect people with an iPhone and, upon entering the site, display a page giving people the option to call for help or continue to the site. (see attached screenshot) We will still get credit for the transaction (tracked through the phone #) and they say that this increases conversion rate, so it is something that we would like to use, unless it will affect our ability to rank in mobile. Problem My concern is that we will be penalized by Google (or rank poorly in Mobile search) because the page that iPhone users (not iPad users) are served is hosted on a different domain and not optimized at all for the keywords people are searching for. This is obviously a non-issue if Google never sees the page, but I have heard that Google will emulate different devices when crawling pages. Question Can anyone provide any insight about this? I feel like we are adding value to customers by giving them the option to speak to customer support, but I'm afraid that Google will think we are cloaking or at best providing the same page to anyone entering with an iPhone. Here is a link to the soon-to-be-launched website:http://dev.concerttickets.com.vhost.zerolag.com/ -- so you can check it out on your iPhone.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | highlyrelevantIs there a possibility that this could effect SEO traffic from other devices? Any suggests will or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! EP1nA EP1nA EP1nA.png
0 -
SEO friendlier domain name
Hi, I just have a doubt. I am building a site I want to optimize for the keyword "slot machine gratis". I have bought two domains: slot-machines-gratis.it and slotmachine-gratis.it. Which domain do you recommend that I use to target the keyword "slot machine gratis"? Thank you.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | salvyy0 -
SEO for Log in Sites
Hello, I just lunched a website where you have to sign up and to log in in order to use it. So I have the home, also a blog but then the rest of the pages are let's say it "hidden".How would you do the seo for it? I have been cheking facebook, foursquare and some others and they use different approaches. Facebook uses the same description in every single page for example. My site is similar to foursquare users have profile, stats, history, ranking. Well, what is your advice?? Thanks a lot
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | antorome0