No equivalent page to re-direct to for highly trafficked pages, what should we do?

[nicole.healthline]

We have several old pages on our site that we want to get rid of, but we don't want to 404 them since they have decent traffic numbers.

Would it be fine to set up a 301 re-direct from all of these pages to our home page? I know the best option is to find an equivalent page to re-direct to, but there isn't a great equivalent.

[ChrisDyson]

A 301 redirect is for pages that have moved to a new location....if they didn't move somewhere and were just deleted, then they should respond with a 404 or 410.  You can return a 410 with a custom navigation menu. If your home page is relevant for the content then by all means redirect your pages here, but as a visitor if I followed a link and ended up on an irrelevant page I'd bounce. You might be better editing, merging or creating new content then doing a 301 to your homepage.

[nicole.healthline]

So, if there isn't equivalent content, you'd just 404 the pages to avoid the bounce?

[ChrisDyson]

I would return a 404 as the content no longer exists. If visitors are discovering this page via a link that provides traffic then you need to ask why you are not creating alternative content as a replacement.