Should I worry about these 404's?

[KateGMaker]

Just wondering what the thought was on this.

We have a site that lets people generate user profiles and once they delete the profile the page then 404's. I was told there is nothing we can do about those from our developers, but I was wondering if I should worry about these...I don't think they will affect any of our rankings, but you never know so I thought I would ask.

Thanks

[RobertFisher]

Can your developers instead put a 302 redirect that goes to the same page that says,,, this member profile does not exist?

Seems simple, unless you have a vast membership.

Would love to see other answers.

Robert

[Chenzo]

I agree with Robert here Kate -

Keep in mind a 404 is like being placed in a room without any doors or windows.

The link juice stops and so do the bots.

It would be best to re-direct them and or take them down.

You could also implement a site wide script that can populate a landing page when a member has been removed vs a 404 error.

your pal

Chenzo

[KateGMaker]

Thanks for some reason they told me they can't fix it, but I kind of figured there had to be a way to fix those 404's. I'll send them over a couple of ideas and see what they tell me.

Thanks

[KateGMaker]

I'll see what they tell me. Sometimes it's difficult because they wont let me into the CPANEL for whatever reason.

[RobertFisher]

Kate, Chenzo is right re the 404 but you are likely not getting any real juice from a profile page. That said, a 302 is a temp redirect and does not convey juice. To me, I do not see a reason to do a 301. You could use either.