404 Error to homepage

[chandubaba]

Is there any risk of forwarding 404 links directly to homepage. I already have 404 page but now google showing you have lots of 404 links and some of them i can't control to fix this issue. Is there any problem if i do so for SEO ?

[TomRayner]

There shouldn't be a problem, but I'd like to ask why you feel the need to 404 them?

Google acknowledges that 404 errors are a natural part of a website that will happen from time to time.  You won't be penalised for having some (I can only see it being a problem if there are 10s of thousands each day).

I'd consider performing a 301 redirect if it met one of the three following criteria:

Do you have good links passing to that page? If so, your homepage could benefit from the link "strength" these links are giving.

Are users hitting that page repeatedly? Check your landing pages in Google analytics, if you have it installed, and see how many users are trying to access that page.  If there are, it would be better to serve them the homepage than a 404.

Does it severely disrupt the user journey/experience on the website?  This would obviously put a user off, so returning them to the homepage would again be the better solution.

In terms of how many redirects you can do to a homepage in one go - I have done thousands before with no adverse benefit, but I wouldn't completely recommend this.  If you end up wanting to redirect a thousand URLs, I would probably do them in 250 bulks over 4 weeks.

The only other problem you may occur is that if you have thousands and thousands of redirects set up in your .htaccess file, if you're running on Apache, it could potentially slow the file down, which would effect the speed of your site.  But I don't think this will be an issue.

Hope this helps!

[chandubaba]

Thanks for the brief info. I seen 404 links coming from few products and most of them are from login link. However i don't know my developer changed the login link to the new one and google crawled that old login link, now it is showing 404 links. Currently google found 235 errors

[mememax]

As Tom, and webmaster central blog states 404s are a natural part of any website. They don't hurt you directly.

Redirect to home is not always a good idea, don't forget the real meaning of redirect: "a content which is permanently/temporary moved to another address.

If the content you are redirecting has just disappeared try to enhance the user experince: what is the advantage for an user looking for a product to reach your homepage? it will only raise your bounce, try to create a customized 404 which give to the users good alternatives to what thhey were looking for, like related products or the category where the product was.

[mememax]

try to nofollwo your login link and block your loggedin pages in your robots, so you'll almost prevent google to reach those pages. If you're able you can also noinedx your content.