What To Do With Broken Links?

[williamc]

A 404 page will still receive passed PR, and if a sitemap of the site pages is used, will pass the PR internally.....

Yes, but who the hell wants a 404 page to rank for anything? The 301 passes the ranking ability to the correct page, the 404 does not.

If a 301 passes PR and SEO value, please explain how a meta refresh (301 on page) fails to do so....

Actually, a meta refresh is still seen as a 302 AFAIK.

[weegillis]

Yes, but who the hell wants a 404 page to rank for anything?

To this I would add (in the HEAD of the custom 404 document),

<meta name="robots" content="follow,noindex" />

to keep my 404 page OUT OF the index.

I would further venture that if an indexed URL returns 404 (from an unconfigured server) it will eventually be removed, and in the meantime would have no link popularity value assigned. In other words, the link probably ONLY exists in the index, and its original source page already dropped from the index.

If these URLs (requests) are captured with a custom 404 page, they will less likely be removed, but rather updated, and treated as 301. On the assumption the old link is simply residue in the index, and the new one to a page that is already indexed (like the home page) it will still show as a vote, even if there is no juice to pass along.

[williamc]

make 301 redirects to home page

Why to the homepage?

[confettiguru]

Why to the homepage?

I'm with WilliamC on this..Why to the homepage indeed. You should direct
to the page most closely related. Just makes sense

[Clint1]

........
If these URLs (requests) are captured with a custom 404 page, they will less likely be removed, but rather updated, and treated as 301.

Are you saying that's good or bad?

I use a custom 404 page with a site search on it (and most of my product links), and explanations as to what could have happened.

[Clint1]

I'm with WilliamC on this..Why to the homepage indeed. You should direct
to the page most closely related. Just makes sense

Perhaps to possibly give your homepage more PR. While I always do a 301 from an invalid URL to either the correct URL, or to a related URL if the page was removed, if there are not other pages like it I have done a 301 from those types to my homepage.

[johnbotash]

As usually I like the 301 redirects better because it allows you to send the visitor directly to the page most relevant to your site visitors without having to do anything.

[weegillis]

As usually I like the 301 redirects better because it allows you to send the visitor directly to the page most relevant to your site visitors without having to do anything.

You will still need to do an internal audit to repair all links pointing to non-existent pages. While redirects will work, the links still point to the wrong location. This is inadequate site management. Permanent redirects are meant to advise search engines, not make our job easier.

[cogzidel]

301 redirection is the better option...

Thanks & Regards,
Cogzidel Technologies