Webmaster tools...URL Errors

[PeterM22]

Hi mozzers,

Quick question. Whats the best thing to do about URL errors in webmaster tools. They are all 404s that point from external sites. Many of them are junk spam sites.

Should I mark them as "fixed" or just leave them. I'm hoping google is aware it's out of my control if spam sites want to link to 404s on my site.

Peter

[ChrisHolgate]

I personally would just ignore any 404's being generated by junk sites; Google certainly isn't penalising you for these and if you mark them as fixed the error will just reappear when Google next follows the broken link.

If you have any 404's being generated from 'good' sources then I'd 301 redirect the broken URL to the correct location on your site (not just to your homepage) and mark the problem as fixed.