aakk9999 - 2:23 am on Nov 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

Perhaps an example will help:


THIS IS BAD USER EXPERIENCE AND MAY AFFECT RANKING
You have a site
On your page there are link(s) (to your other page or to another site's page)
When you click these link(s), you get 404

THIS WILL NOT AFFECT RANKING
You have site
Your links on the site are fine (return 200 OK when clicked)
Someone else's site has a link to your site
The link on that other site goes to an URL that does not exist on your site
When the link on that other site is clicked, your server returns 404