Would tons of 404 pages hurt your site?

Dollar · 11-10-2007, 04:19 PM

I have 2,000 404 Pages according to Google Webmasters tools. This is becuase I did few switchroos a few times to many. (going from blogspot, to self hosting wordpress then Joomla. Also Now I'm in the midst of Going back to wordpress *sigh*

becuase Joomla sucks;least for me.)

So I have alot of 404 anyways,
Would this hurt my sites ranking?

phpAdNetwork · 11-10-2007, 04:28 PM

I recommend redirecting the missing pages to one static page if you don't already.

coolguy27 · 11-12-2007, 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dollar

I have 2,000 404 Pages according to Google Webmasters tools. This is becuase I did few switchroos a few times to many. (going from blogspot, to self hosting wordpress then Joomla. Also Now I'm in the midst of Going back to wordpress *sigh*

becuase Joomla sucks;least for me.)

So I have alot of 404 anyways,
Would this hurt my sites ranking?

Of course it will... Will the visitors be happy if you have a lots of non existing pages? Of course not, what do you think?

Steven_D · 11-15-2007, 03:47 AM

in the google webmaster tools there is an option to delete URLs that google has stored for your site, you may want to go ahead and add them in, they take a day to be removed, else they generally drop after 2 weeks.

this is why blogging etc is just a joke, web hosting / site maintenance is not a difficult task.

sleepyhead · 11-15-2007, 03:49 AM

note: Bad for your site.

marketraise001 · 11-15-2007, 05:13 AM

Google looks for linking patterns. That means that it probably won't hurt your site if you link to a bad web site by mistake. Use a tool like ARELIS to find good related web sites with which you can exchange links.

Many links to 404 error pages might cause ranking problems. For that reason, it's a good idea to check the links on your web site every now and then.

zelphics · 11-15-2007, 06:18 AM

yay a lot of 404 pages are very bad, it decreases your credibility and makes your sites visitors unhappy.

redeemer_spawn · 11-15-2007, 10:32 AM

It has a big big BAD effect to your site., when your visitor found out that it was an error they never attempt to open that again and by that you loose a lot of visitors/traffic to your site.,

t.analiza011885 · 11-15-2007, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dollar

So I have alot of 404 anyways,
Would this hurt my sites ranking?

off course...
thats too bad dear..

corlock · 11-15-2007, 12:17 PM

just think about this, a single 404 page is bad especially if its ignored and do nothing about it at all, the effect would be very lethal. maybe a big loss in traffic and drop in SERP ranking might be the effects. now, imagine having those tons of 404 on your site?

try out some of 301 redirection which will be of great help. but as you said, you have 2000 of it? its lots of work T_T

Dollar · 11-17-2007, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by corlock

just think about this, a single 404 page is bad especially if its ignored and do nothing about it at all, the effect would be very lethal. maybe a big loss in traffic and drop in SERP ranking might be the effects. now, imagine having those tons of 404 on your site?

try out some of 301 redirection which will be of great help. but as you said, you have 2000 of it? its lots of work T_T

haha!
2,000 of it. I just put custom 404 page with a link back the site.
I think 2,000 url redirection in my .htaccess my might make my server slow...(which would piss off my webhost) Plus too as you said..its lots of work.

Tkilgore · 11-17-2007, 08:33 AM

I seen it first hand that when an excessive amount of errors accrue that Google will penalize you for it. Make a simple .htaccess to capture those errors and redirect them. Simple STuff. :-) Tk