SEARCHENGINES

Can You Redirect Links That Lead To 404 Pages & Gain Google SEO Value?

Published

2 years ago

March 23, 2022

Can You Redirect Links That Lead To 404 Pages & Gain Google SEO Value?

We know that links pointing to pages that do not exist, that 404 or some soft 404, are links that are not counted by Google – that is not new. But John Mueller of Google spoke about how sometimes you can redirect old 404 pages and that link may pass to the new page, even if that link is 404ed for years?

To be clear, a link that points to a 404ed page does not count. If that page is 404ed for a year or so, and then you add a redirect, I highly doubt Google will begin to count that link again. But John Mueller said that in some cases, if the links to the two year old 404ed page are super strong, that maybe Google will count it again after you redirect it. Or maybe he was being nice to the person asking the question?

John said “I’d say for for a certain while you can still go back and add a redirect for those individual links that you see like that. I don’t know if after two years it would make a big difference unless there are really strong links that are going to your site and kind of being lost like that.”

This question and answer came up at the 19:43 mark in the video hangout from last Friday:

Here is the transcript:

SEO: Another question is about the broken links on our website where our website has around 40k in pages and doubled the links. So we have around 20k of broken links caused by a migration gone bad from a platform to another platform. Since then we started noticing decrease in organic traffic. We used to rank let’s say for 20k, 25k per day in organic traffic now we’re only getting like 2k to 3k or 4k at max. So do you think it’s a great metric to SEO ranking to remove this these broken links and 404 pages?

John Mueller: When when did you do that migration? Is that longer ago?

SEO: Yes, it happened in 2020, about two years ago now.

John Mueller: My guess is for the most part that doesn’t matter anymore. So it is something I would watch out for with any migration because. Essentially the main thing you want to catch is the situation where someone externally links to your website and that link to your website essentially goes into nowhere. So if you see someone externally linking to a page that is now a 404 page because you forgot to redirect it, that link is is kind of lost. And if you see that happening at a larger scale then those those links are things that you will lose and that can be reflected in the search results over time as well.

I’d say for for a certain while you can still go back and add a redirect for those individual links that you see like that. I don’t know if after two years it would make a big difference unless there are really strong links that are going to your site and kind of being lost like that.

Glenn Gabe summed it up nicely in this set of tweets:

More: You can also estimate this by checking server logs. If you see a lot of crawlers from search engine going to specific 404s, sometimes that’s a sign they think there will be something useful there, but they get lost. Determine what could be redirected https://t.co/fGr9HUoTCx pic.twitter.com/5MBZ0APikS
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 22, 2022

The video goes on to explain what you can look for to see if Google is still trying to access those 404s, hence your log files.

I just doubt a link to a 404 page that has been like that for two years is really recoverable but maybe I am wrong?

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Related Topics:Gain Google Lead links Pages Redirect seo

Up Next

Microsoft Bing On This Page Search Results Page Feature

Don't Miss

Googlers Making Dumplings At Google Office

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: May 3, 2024

Published

21 hours ago

May 4, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google got their cost down to generate AI answers in search by 80%. Google is interested in alternatives to hreflang. Google may recrawl URLs multiple times per day or per month. Google is testing custom search filter templates in search. Google AdSense removed its privacy policy as a placement for withdrawal of consent. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap. And deeply sad to report that passing of Mark Irvine.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google March Core Update Done, HCU Recoveries, Site Reputation Abuse & AI Topics

This week, we covered how the Google March 2024 core update finished back on April 19th, and Google forgot to tell us. I also posted the May 2024 Google webmaster report. Google said it’s still possible for sites to recover…

Google SGE AI Answers Now Cost 80% Less To Generate

One of the big worries for Google investors was the cost of running AI to show within its search results. The AI overviews, now AI answers are costly to run. But as expected, Google was able to reduce the cost to generate these AI Answers.

Google Search Tests Custom Filters & Templates

Google Search is testing custom filters and pre-define search filter templates. It appears you can save your custom filters and reuse those filters for future searches. This is showing up for a limited number of searchers.

Google Open To Alternative Ideas For Hreflang

Gary Illyes from Google said he has heard from the SEO industry that hreflang can be “annoying” and complex and confusing. So he is open to ideas on how to replace it and make it work for both small and really large websites.

Google Recrawls URLs At Different Rates: Multiple Times Per Day To Every Few Months

Google has to crawl the web to build its index for it to provide search results. And since webpages and documents get updated, Google needs to recrawl those URLs from time to time. Google will recrawl URLs at different rates, said John Mueller of Google.

Google AdSense Has Removed Privacy Policy As Place To Withdraw Consent

Google AdSense has removed reference to your privacy policy as a place to withdraw consent. AdSense now has clarified that the revocation link at the bottom of the page should say “Privacy and cookie settings”.

The Industry Mourns The Loss Of Mark Irvine – Brilliant & Giving Search Marketer

I am deeply sad to report that Mark Irvine passed away unexpectedly last night. Mark was deeply involved in the search marketing community, known as being a brilliant paid search specialist who always spent his time helping others over his long career in the space.

Google Gradient Canopy Signage

I honestly did not know the new Google office, or one of them at least, was named the Gradient Canopy. I mean, I guess it makes sense. Here is a sign in front of that building with that name.

Other Great Search Threads:

I like to think of these (artificial, impossible, philosophical) questions as “if I added X to a page, would it be better for Y?” Would adding SD to a page make it rank higher? No. Might it rank differently? Maybe – SD enables some search features, but th, John Mueller on X

Small Google doc change, they restructured the Product structured data documentation, Barry Schwartz on X

AdSense Earnings and Observations – May 2024, WebmasterWorld

I hope it’s not just technically well-made :-). There have been some interesting takes in the space, I’m sure someone will find a model that works for clients, users, search & is profitable., John Mueller on X

Once you launch a new campaign (and you already have a Conversion Tracking in place) Google will always re-direct you towards the Google Tag Setup with instructions how to implement it. Have you seen it too?, Thomas Eccel on X

We’ve added Salesforce as a data source for data import! You can now import data directly from Salesforce to Google Analytics as offline-event data. Schedule daily or hourly imports, and select any existing Salesforce mil, Google Analytics on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

SEARCHENGINES

Google Interested In Hreflang Alternatives

Published

2 days ago

May 3, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Gary Illyes from Google said he has heard from the SEO industry that hreflang can be “annoying” and complex and confusing. So he is open to ideas on how to replace it and make it work for both small and really large websites.

He wrote this on LinkedIn saying, “Things I’ve learned and heard in Sofia at the SERPConf event.” He said one of those is that “hreflang is annoying.”

Gary wrote, “I don’t disagree,” that I guess he understands why SEOs and creators find it annoying.

So he said that he open to new ideas. He wrote, “I’m still very open to coming up with something less annoying, but it needs to work for small sites and mammoths as well, while delivering at least the same amount of information.”

So if you have ideas, let Gary know, he wrote, “Ping if you have ideas.”

You can use hreflang to tell Google about the variations of your content. This helps Google understand the various pages and how they are localized variations of the same content. But the implementation can be confusing and detailed, why he said it can be annoying. Several years ago, John Mueller said hreflang can be the most complex aspect in SEO.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

SEARCHENGINES

Daily Search Forum Recap: May 1, 2024

Published

3 days ago

May 2, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google Ads posted its first feature announcement in over two months, it is on PMax updates. Bing Webmaster Tools fixed a notification bug. Google SGE renamed its AI overviews to AI Answer. Most SEOs have not filled in the Google March 2024 core update feedback form. A Google search for flag GIFs can lead to Nazi flags.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google Ads Posts First New Feature Announcement In Two Months – PMax Updates

Google Ads has posted its first new features announcement in its help section in over two months. This was to announce several Performance Max campaigns features, which we will get into below. But like I reported earlier, Google has not posted anything in this section for two months prior to posting this new announcement.

Googling “Flag GIF” Leads To Nazi Flags In Google Search

If you search for [flag GIF] on Google, click on the “waiving” refinement, you are taken to images of Nazi flags. I waited a full week to report on this, a full week from when Google acknowledged the issue and it is still an issue.

Bing Webmaster Tools Notifications & Insights Bug Fixed

Fabrice Canel from Microsoft confirmed Microsoft has fixed a bug with Bing Webmaster Tools showing inaccurate and/or irrelevant notifications in the notifications and insights section. Fabrice wrote, “Happy to report that the fix has been implemented and the issue should now be resolved for your site and all sites once data is refreshed.”

Google SGE AI Overviews Has A New Title – AI Answer

Google is now labeling or using the title of its SGE, Search Generative Experience, “AI Answer.” This replaces the title “AI Overviews” and “Al overviews are experimental.” This change happened on Monday, I believe.

Most SEOs Did Not Send Feedback To Google On The March 2024 Core Update

Google opened up its feedback form after it announced the Google March 2024 core update was completed and it seems most SEOs did not send Google feedback. Why? Maybe because many don’t believe Google will use that feedback to help them? Maybe because SEOs don’t want to share specifics with Google?

Sundar Pichai 20 Year Google Anniversary

Google’s CEO, Sunday Pichai, on April 26, 2024, posted on Instagram that he is celebrating him 20 year anniversary of working at Google. He started on April 26, 2004 and is now running the place.