Link from a non existing page- is it bad?
-
If Google Webmaster tools is showing a link to my site and when checked, that page doesn't exist (404 error), does that mean anything? Is it bad?
-
That's a good idea Iain. Thanks! Though link is pointing to homepage so can't redirect.
-
I agree with Edward here.
However for bonus SEO points if you 301 redirect the page where the external link is pointing to, to a relevant page, you'll take full advantage of that links power.
Iain - Reload Media
-
I support, there is nothing you need to worry about. Google will automatically take that link out once it recrawls the page.
-
Please don't take the above advice. I think the responder misunderstood your situation. If the externally linking page is broken, there's not much you can do. It will fall out of Google eventually.
-
If the page is indexed I would remove it. This should help: https://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=59819
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
-
Best practice in terms of link volume in a page
Hi everyone! Done a site audit recently and found that some articles in our Resource content (where we generally put useful industry news/posts) have multiple links in it (4 to 9 links in a single article). And these are usually internal links (within our domain), but there are few mixed with external domains. What we would like to know: What's the best practice in terms of regulating number of links (internal or external) in an article? Another case I noticed, some links in our articles appeared to be targeting same landing page, just different anchor texts used. Will this get us into trouble? Thanks in advanced for your help.
Link Building | | ktrich1 -
How many links per week/month should a link building campaign acquire?
I am running a linkbuilding campaign for my company. I am mostly focusing on guest blogging opportunities and responding to emails from HARO. How many links would I have to acquire each week or month to be considered doing a good job over a 6 month or a year time period? Thank you,
Link Building | | fersu0 -
When we use 'link:' for who get the link, how come google show us the same domain as a link.
the search result show the domain of its own. what is is? and is it meaningful as a link?
Link Building | | onedaykorea0 -
Link building strategy - my weak link!
Please help me understand link building. I've read the articles on Moz, but they seem vague to me. Specific questions: 1. How do I get my webpage on good quality sites? 2. Guest blogging? Good or not? 3. What about when people pick up one of our blog stories and publish it on their site with a link back? Is that bad now because it is duplicate content??? 4. Forum posts with a link in the signature? Good or not? 5. Directories - I get it that these are no longer good... are they severely negative? Should I take them down. 6. PR - Looks like this is bad... right??? 7. Youtube - any value? 8. Pinterst, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram? Any value to backlinks here? 9. What about sites like redit? 10. Anything else I should consider?
Link Building | | CalicoKitty20000 -
Home Page & Most Important Category Page Cannibalizing Each Other
OK, so here goes. We have an odd situation on our hands. Our website sells a product technically known as "nail polish strips". We are a small player at the moment, but the reviews we've gotten in "side-by-side" comparisons vs. the big boys have been crazy, and literally always in our favor. Now the issue..... The best way to describe our product as mentioned above is they are Nail Polish Strips. Our domain name includes the term "Nail Strips" in it. Of the 200+ bloggers that have done reviews and provided us links, about 80% or so have linked to the home page, most just using our websites name, some have been nice enough to actually use keyword terms like nail polish strips. Moral of the story, for the term nail polish strips, our link profile would indicate to the google machine that our home page is stronger for this term. THE BIG ISSUE HOWEVER...... Our main category on the site that shows products is the page we originally intended to optimize for the term Nail Polish Strips. And our aim was going to be to optimize our home page for something else, like maybe plain old Nail Strips. THE BIGGER ISSUE...... At any given moment, Google is having a hard time figuring it out. Based on our link profile, we should be on page one, but what we're seeing is today, it's our Nail Polish Strips category page that ranks for that term, and tomorrow that listing will be replaced with our home page. Literally, last night the home page was on the top of page two, and today, the category page is on the middle of page two. They keep flip flopping. Sometimes they both appear within the first 3 pages, sometimes only one appears on page two, the other drops out of the top 10 pages. OUR THINKING IS....... Our home page obviously has more strength and if the google machine is even implying they like it for that term, we might as well accommodate that. Keyword spy shows this term has a volume of around 18,000 searches. The term isn't hugely competitive, so we planned to 301-redirect the current category page URL that is competing with the home page, to the home page, and re-create and optimize the category page for something different, like Nail Polish Stickers or something to that effect. THE FINAL ISSUE....... The term stickers in this industry as it relates to our product has been the victim of a negative PR campaign because the big boys (or girls) are trying to say "Nail Stickers" are garbage as opposed to "Nail Polish Strips". The problem is Nail Stickers gets a lot more traffic. So we figured, we'd optimize the category page for Nail Polish Stickers, and explain in the text, that despite what some of our competitors say, just because we're using the word "stickers" to describe them, doesn't mean they are bad, so on and so forth. I ONLY MENTION THIS SO YOU SEE WHY I'M HESITANT TO PULL THE TRIGGER ON OUR ABOVE FIX. I know this is long, and I'm not doing a great job of putting it in to words, but any insight will help. I'm supposed to pull the trigger today or tomorrow on this re-direct and new strategy, but don't want to do so until I get some of my fellow ninja's opinions.
Link Building | | AarcMediaGroup0 -
Link building
I keep sending personal emails to website asking for a link form them but every one says no how do other website get so many links to there website whats the best software to use
Link Building | | homesandindustrial0 -
Links I am not Building?
Hi All, I check webmaster multiple times on a daily basis, and I noticed some links that I have not worked on and look a bit spammy, is it possible for people to purposely pont bad links in my direction? If that is the case is there a way for me to remove them myself? Also the number of total backlinks are very different in Webmaster and my Open Site Explorer, is this normal? Thanks again !
Link Building | | TP_Marketing0 -
We have links from our page at .com and .com/. Should we be concerned about this and try to merge?
When running link reports for our page .com, it redirects to .com/. We do have links for both URLs, but .com/ is significantly more than the other. Should we be concerned by this? Are we losing some links because of this?
Link Building | | hanapin0