23000 Links are not found- Should I redirect them?

[ilovebodykits]

Hi

I have been deleting product links from my website but never redirect them. On my google webmaster, it shows there is total 23000 products are not found. Should I redirect them all back to the home page?

For the pages with soft 404 response.. should I also redirect those original URL back to home page ?

Thanks

[sprynewmedia]

Track the back links to the pages. Any with good links should be 301 redirected to a closely  matched page.

For the rest, clean up the server response and make sure it shows a firm 404 or 410 (gone)

Hopefully these are in a directory then you can use GWMT to request the directories are removed.

[csfarnsworth]

1.Redirect the old deleted pages to relevant page.

2.Use OSE to check out the P.A of broken page If it has some P.A surely needs redirects.Redirect to the original moved content page rather than homepage.

3.If your site is in wordpress you can easily do it using Redirection plugin.