The best way to keep the link juice from links to pages not existing anymore?

[Fking]

When you buy a domain with lots of existing links, but for some reason you can't or don't want to recreate the previous pages and content, what would be the best way to keep and redirect to the homepage the power of all those existing links?

Right now i have a .htaccess where i've set the 404 page to be 404.php and in 404.php i have

<?
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" ); 
Header( "Location: http://" . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] ); //this just takes the root domain name and points there
?>

so basically i send them all to 404 page and there 301 redirect them to the homepage.
Is that the best way? Since it goes through a 404 redirect, does that kills the link juice?
Matt Cuts says that 301 redirect keep the most of it, but since we have and 404 page involved here i decided to ask

 

[Domonetise]

When you buy a domain with lots of existing links, but for some reason you can't or don't want to recreate the previous pages and content, what would be the best way to keep and redirect to the homepage the power of all those existing links?

Right now i have a .htaccess where i've set the 404 page to be 404.php and in 404.php i have

<?
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" ); 
Header( "Location: http://" . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] ); //this just takes the root domain name and points there
?>

so basically i send them all to 404 page and there 301 redirect them to the homepage.
Is that the best way? Since it goes through a 404 redirect, does that kills the link juice?
Matt Cuts says that 301 redirect keep the most of it, but since we have and 404 page involved here i decided to ask

If you are still looking for help with this let me know.

 

[dcristo]

@Domonetise why don't you simply post in this thread for all to benefit?

 

[Domonetise]

@Domonetise why don't you simply post in this thread for all to benefit?

Put this in your .htaccess file

#To re-direct www.yourdomain.com to yourdomain.com#
==================================================
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^www.yourdomain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://yourdomain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]
==================================================

#To re-direct a single page#
==================================================
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
Redirect 301 /backlinkpage.htm http://yourdomain.com/
Redirect 301 /backlinkfolder/backlinkpage.htm http://yourdomain.com/
==================================================

#To re-direct a complete folder#
==================================================
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RedirectMatch 301 ^/backlinkfolder/ http://yourdomain.com/
==================================================

It is important that the page you want to be re-directed should start with [ / ] and not [ http://yourdomain.com/ ] and to re-direct a complete folder start with [ ^/ ]

1 space must be used to seperate [ /backlinkpage.htm http://yourdomain.com/ ]

Additional pages/folders, start on a new line.

My advise would be to re-direct 1 or 2 URL's to start with, and then check that the redirection is working ok.

PLEASE NOTE: Make a backup copy of your .htaccess file should you need to revert to the original.

 

[Fking]

thanks for the detailed and helpful guide

the thing is the site used to be a forum with 150k+ pages
i dont have the list of the pages or folders and would prefer more general solution instead of page or folder level redirection.

What do you think about method? Do i waste link juice by going through a 404 page?

 

[draggar]

Why not just create a custom 404 and let them know the link is no longer valid, but also have the normal site navigation on it?

 

[dcristo]

I think it would be better to redirect to the most relevant page (in terms of SEO) if there isn't one serve a custom 404 page with the normal site navigation on it.

 

[Domonetise]

I think it would be better to redirect to the most relevant page (in terms of SEO) if there isn't one serve a custom 404 page with the normal site navigation on it.

Why not just create a custom 404 and let them know the link is no longer valid, but also have the normal site navigation on it?

My thoughts exactly on using a 404, but I would gently break the news that they were on a 404 if you want any chance ok keeping them there before they instantly hit the back button.

thanks for the detailed and helpful guide

the thing is the site used to be a forum with 150k+ pages
i dont have the list of the pages or folders and would prefer more general solution instead of page or folder level redirection.

What do you think about method? Do i waste link juice by going through a 404 page?

I honestly do not know the answer to that question, sorry.