Better to re-direct to a completely un-related page or 404?

[nicole.healthline]

We have about 1000 pages we need to eliminate from our site (of about 18000 URLs). these URLs don't see a ton of traffic, but may have some valuable links.

Would we be better to 404 these or re-direct them to our homepage? Could re-directing to our homepage hurt us?

[PracticeFusion]

Personally, I would 404 these pages.

But first, I would spend a good amount of time looking for incoming links. Perhaps take a random 100 of your 1,000 pages and do a backlink check on all of them. Is nobody linking to them....and they're not generating traffic....and you don't have a new page to replace it....then just 404 them.

However, if you find out that magically these pages have lots of links, then you'll want to put on your thinking cap. Might it be worth creating a new page to point those links to? Or, are you better off just reaching out to these folks and asking them to link to a different page on your site?

Also, on a semi related note, I wouldn't 404 all 1,000 pages at the same time. Do a few hundred at a time and see if anything happens. If there's no huge rush, it's better to space it out.

[nicole.healthline]

why do you think it would be better to space it out?