Webmaster Tools returning thousands of 404 errors

[Shatner]

I never had this problem before Panda, but lately it's ongoing and they just won't go away.

Webmaster Tools keeps reporting thousands and thousands of 404 errors on my site.

90% of them are generated by other websites who have old or broken links to my site. The 404 errors just won't go away though. Every time Google updates, I get a whole new batch of them.

Is this something I should be concerned about?

[LifeinAsia]

I'd fix them- many of them probably have some link juice that you're just throwing away. Either make a page with content or handle them with a 301 redirect.

[Shatner]

I'm not sure really how I can fix them, most of them are gobbledeegook links which don't exist. And they're caused mostly by other websites, so I can't exactly fix their bad link.

I guess I could 301 redirect them, but it's thousands of different links that would take a very long time to do.

Will it hurt me overall to have these? Will Google penalize for them?

[tedster]

If the links are not on your site, they won't hurt you. They're just listed automatically by Google as an FYI for the site owner.

[LifeinAsia]

It depends on what application server you're using, but most allow some sort of catchall or sitewide error handling.

Also, check your server logs to see if you're getting lots of hits to any particular non-existing pages. Someone may be trying to spam your log files.

[Shatner]

@tedster Thanks! Exactly what I needed to know.

[tedster]

I remember that JohnMu said the same recently, too, but so far I couldn't track down the reference. It only makes sense, given that you don't control other websites.

[bhartzer]

they won't hurt you

No, but it is worth it to look at the list and see if there some that are bringing your traffic. There may be some that you can redirect that are more important than others.

[Shatner]

>>No, but it is worth it to look at the list and see if there some that are bringing your traffic.

Definitely. I actually keep an eye on that in my Analytics, none of them are.