Inbound Links from Broken Pages

[strategemilabs]

Hi all,

We have a client who has a lot of inbound links from external pages that are broken/404. The 404 pages are EXTERNAL and linking to my client's pages, but their domain still has authority and their home page (and other pages) still load.

My question is: what should we do about this? Do we detox those links, or are they still sending some juice given that they have domain authority, despite the fact that the pages linking to my client are broken?

So in other words:

- My client is: yyyy.com

- They have a link from vvvv.com/services, which is a broken page

- So what should we do about this?

Thanks all!

Gavin

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

Hi Gavin,

Probably by now the links to your client have lost their value as Google also noticed that these pages are giving a 404 response instead of a 200. That's why I won't bother about them, probably they will disappear one day from Open Site Explorer or any other link profile research tool you're using.

[JaneCopland]

Hi Gavin,

Agree with Martijn here - links from 404ing pages are very unlikely to either help or hinder a website, just as inbound links to pages on your site that 404 also don't help / hurt.

You probably do not need to do anything about these links. However, if they were very good links in the past and you would like them back, you could consider contacting the webmasters of the sites with the broken pages and asking them if they are aware of their errors and / or would consider updating.

Cheers,

Jane