301 Directs

[Essential-Pest]

We have found a lot of 404 error pages that we have transferred with 301 directs.

My questions is, should these 301 directs be marked as a NF (nofollow)?

[Canome79]

I think 404's should be 404's as if someone is linking to pages that don't exist, a 404 is the best response. Google and bots will see a 404 and remove that url.

301's are more useful when reorganizing a site and traffic (inbound links, search traffic) come in to old urls. To just redirect all 404s as a 301 us not usefull I would say.

[Essential-Pest]

We have had 404 errors for over a month now through Moz. These are of high priority to be taken care of as well, so leaving it for Google to get rid of sounds very discouraging. These links are not ones we use on our site anymore and that is why we've been re-directing.

[Sheena_Schleicher]

No, you don't want to NoFollow 301s. The point of a 301 permanent redirect is for "everyone to be redirected" - users, search bots, & link juice - but adding NoFollow would prevent this.

[MonicaOConnor]

Google will eventually get rid of them. If you have similar pages to the ones that are 404 errors, then you should redirect them. If you don't then best practice is to let them fall off.

However, if you had key terms ranking on page 1 or 2 on those pages I would definitely redirect them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp5Nf8ANfOw This is a video by Matt Cutts where he kind of tells you how to handle these errors effectively

[greindel]

1. No you should not use  NF (nofollow) on your 301 redirects. Make sure when redirecting your 404's that you are redirecting them to a relevant page.
2. Never  NoFollow 301s unless it an affiliate link if for instance you had the site that allowed someone to sign up and you are compensated financially for that person signing up on your website then you would use the nofollow tag.  Here is it URL discussing  what I'm talking about Example of affiliate links
3. If you did add NoFollow on your code change it ASAP an instance of when you may see it used is when somebody puts a URL in the comment box of any major blogging platform for instance no follow is built into comments on WordPress but that's all automatic. Meaning you do not have to add the no follow I bring this up only if this involves you checking your code.
4. You should never know follow a link that is internal you would destroy your ability to be found online. Outside of the affiliate link scenario I gave above.

Greg

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[Bryan_Loconto]

Haa!

I love that infographic Greg! We have a printed version on our war room wall