Old links

[cottamg]

I am looking to remove some old directory links that now look spammy.

Some years ago the site was redesigned. The links are all to the old pages url, which is 301 redirected to the new.

If we remove the 301 and let the page 404, will that suffice in Googles eyes?

[irvingw]

yes, 404 means link is no longer counting and your work is done this is why people should never point links to their homepage, you can't 404 your homepage.

these directories allowed you to deep link to internal pages though? a lot of directories want your homepage link.