Too many 301 redirects to home page - is this possible?

[inhouseninja]

If a site has a bunch of 404’s that are basically old URL’s that no longer work and point to pages or documents that don’t exist anymore -  Can someone clarify if it’s a problem when fixing a bunch of these 404’s to point them all to the home page?

so if there is not really anywhere else that is applicable for the old broken URL, is it really a problem to 301 old pages to the site home page?

I have read some different things on this recently on some different sites, so I just wondered what the latest thinking on this was….thanks...

[Marcus_Miller]

Hmmm, hard to say exactly but maybe if we look at the http status codes and their meanings it may help you to make a more informed decision.

The status codes are detailed in full here:
http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html

In brief, they are as follows:

301 - the requested resource has moved permanently

404 - the requested resource is unavailable

410 - the requested resource has gone

So really, just use common sense. If the pages have an alternative then 301 the missing page to it's closest alternative. If the pages have no alternative and they get many requests then, they should have an alternative so create one, or, link it to the homepage - maybe. If the pages have lots of inbound links and have no replacement, create one, or 301 them to the homepage.

Generally, if the page has no real alternative, does little traffic and has no links then allow it to 404 but use a good custom 404 page to help signpost them on their way.

You also have the 410 gone code but in practice, I have never seen anyone use that so a combination of 301 & 404 pages with a liberal sprinkling of common sense is the best approach.

Some great resources here:

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/http-status-codes

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/are-404-pages-always-bad-for-seo

Hope it helps

Marcus

[DanDeceuster]

I took over a website once and we redid it. The content was old and stale, a review site of products years old. We did a new url structure and new content, but we didn't redo the content of the old reviews. There were hundreds of URLs that got redirected to the home page. I pretty much took the entire old url structure and sent that whole directory to the home page. I only pulled out a few that had new counterparts. Hasn't harmed us, top 5 ranking. I wouldn't worry about it. Google hates it when you get lots of 301s from other domains, as in you bought up a bunch of old expired ones and redirected all their urls to your home page. That would be a bad idea. Internal links I don't think matter at all from an seo perspective.

[Getz.pro]

No not at all. I do this for all old product that have fallen off. I redirect them back to their category page (not the home page).

I would however, not try to do this in the htaccess file, but within the head of php page. This automates the process and keeps you from having to manually change the htaccess file often and gives you a way to evaluate the URL to determine the best place to redirect to.

I hope that helps.

[BlinkWeb]

I swear I read in a recent post that Google frowns on large redirect to your homepage... Am I crazy??? I tried to find where I read this but can't remember. Anyone? Bueler?

[BlinkWeb]

Found it! http://www.seomoz.org/blog/301-redirect-or-relcanonical-which-one-should-you-use Check out the section "Redirecting all pages in one go to a single URL" "Although the intention may not be manipulative, there have been cases of people doing this to try and consolidate all the link juice from loads of pages into one page, to make that page stronger. This can sometimes put up a flag to Google who may come and take a closer look at whats going on." This post does also come with a Matt Cutts video discussing this. Hope that helps!

[TECHeGO]

The answer is NO, there is no inherent risk of ranking loss or credibility loss when redirecting old URL's. Think of it like the post office, lets say you move a lot and as a result you have become very familiar with their change of address form. The post office isn't going to delay the delivery of your mail just because your Dads in the military or your Mom keeps moving to escape old flames. Relocating is a part of life and when it comes down to it the Post Office and Google, for that matter, thank you for 301'ing your mail so it doesn't stack up and clutter the Index with undeliverables.