Is 301 redirecting all old URLS after a new site redesign to the root domain bad for SEO?

[DCochrane]

Yes. That is what should be done I agree.

But since it wasn't done.. instead of just leaving it & not doing anything about it... would it be better to redirect any 404 pages to the root domain in the mean time?

Or should it be left until we can redirect all the individual pages to their appropriate new page?

Thanks

[GeorgiaSEOServices]

Google is aware that 404 errors can't always be avoided since you don't have any control over someone creating a bad link on an external site. So the impact on your SEO should be little to none unless it's completely out of hand and occurring as a result of something internal such as a bad navigational structure.

I would not suggest 301 redirecting 404 pages to the home page of a site because it's frustrating to users who may not be aware of what's going on. It can be potentially frustrating if they're expecting to see a specific page and keep getting pushed to the home page with no explanation as to why it's happening.

Your best bet is going to be creating a custom 404 page that indicates that the page is not available and make suggestions to other areas on your site and a means to contact you if they can't find what they're looking for. That way they know what's happening and don't get frustrated in the process.

And don't forget to continually monitor the reporting errors in Google Webmaster Tools to see the biggest offenders. If you see missing pages getting double digit visits, build an actual page on that URL directing them to the right alternate place (assuming that the page actually exists elsewhere in your new site setup).  If there are simply too many 404 errors happening, just stick with the custom 404 solution above and clean as you monitor the activity. But it's just not a good user experience or practice to 301 without an explanation.

[DCochrane]

Thanks.  I have a custom 404 page but what if I'm looking to pass along the link juice from pages on an old site to the new site. Will this pass along any page authority by just redirecting it to the root domain?

[Vizergy]

Are you hoping to just make it easier on yourself by sending all old pages to the root rather than mapping them to the most relevant pages?  If you have a large site I understand but I would strongly suggest, at the VERY LEAST, mapping the more important pages to the new site's counterpart pages that are the most relevant and then you can send the remaining pages to the home page or a sitemap.htm page.  I don't know that pointing them all to the root would be 'bad', per-say, but I feel you would be missing an opportunity to help boost new internal pages that you need ranking asap.

[irvingw]

"Google is aware that 404 errors can't always be avoided since you don't have any control over someone creating a bad link on an external site. So the impact on your SEO should be little to none unless it's completely out of hand and occurring as a result of something internal such as a bad navigational structure."

I respectfully disagree,  the SEO impact is not because Google will punish you for having 404's, the SEO impact is that the new corresponding pages will not rank and the old pages that no longer exist will lose their rank after a little while of remaining in the index and taking visitors to a 404 and not converting.

[DCochrane]

Great!

Now is the only way to find old pages that weren't redirected to a new site is through webmaster tools correct?

Are there any other tools out there that would find old URLS.. URLS maybe even a year old that weren't redirected?

Thanks for all the reassurance so far.

[Vizergy]

If they were, and still are, indexed in Google just do a site: search

[GeorgiaSEOServices]

If the URL is a 404, there's no "link juice" to pass. The home page of any site will always have the most page rank anyway. I wouldn't be concerned with that. Focus on user experience.

[GeorgiaSEOServices]

There's a free XML sitemap creator at http://www.auditmypc.com/xml-sitemap.asp. Not only will it create a sitemap for you that you can upload, but will also show you any internal bad links which can cause you the biggest problems.

Outside of that Webmaster Tools will be your most effective tool for catching those external sites linking to your old or missing pages. Be sure to reach out to repeat offenders and ask them to update their links to you.

[Vahe.Arabian]

You will need to check the server error log files for the new site in order to pick these up, if this hasn't been detected in WMT.