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Google Ignores Links to 404 Pages

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google 404 linksLast week, Gary Illyes from Google commented that 404 error pages do not cause a Google penalty.  Yes, you will lose traffic to those pages if they had been “real” pages previously, but just having many 404s on a site does not cause a penalty specifically because you have many 404s.

He was asked follow up questions specifically regarding any inbound links that lead to those 404 pages.  Illyes says that Google ignores links that lead to a 404 page.

And then was asked another followup question, if there were differences between regular 404s and soft 404s when it comes to links that lead to those 404s.

@SEO-Portal: You say that Google ignores Links leading to 404 pages. Are Soft-404 treated in the same fashion?

@methode: yes, they are. Generally, with a few exceptions, if a page is not indexed, its links are ignored too.

While he doesn’t go into detail about the “few exceptions”, it is interesting that links pointing towards a 404 page do not count towards the site at all.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post
Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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Comments

  1. This is really good information. This will give website owners a chance to get their websites running again without the fear of penalty.