When a user requests a page on a website that has been removed most web servers will present a 404 page to the user. The 404 page will indicate to both the users and the search engines that the page no longer exists.

Webmasters should always customise their 404 page so that a user can easily see that they have arrived on a page which does not exist, the page should also include a sitemap so the user can easily navigate around the site. Logging into Google Webmaster tools you can now go to web crawl and review all the pages which are 404 pages. With a couple of clicks you can then view what external pages are linking to the 404 page.

You now have a list of backlinks that are linking to a non existant page, so what do you do with this
information? You have 2 options they are:

• 1. Contact the Webmaster and get them to change the link – You could email the webmaster of the site that it linking to the 404 page and ask them to change the link to an appropriate page on your site. This will convert the dead link, and give you credit for the link, this will make your site stronger
• 2. 301 redirect the 404 page – Having problems contacting the webmaster? Another easy option would be to 301 redirect the 404 page in question to a relevant page on your site, if their is no relevant page you should 301 redirect to your home page. This will keep the link juice in your site which was previously lost

You work so hard to obtain links, it would be wastfeul to not take this opportunity to keep the link juice you have worked hard to get. This method is an easy way to get quick free links