Google’s Martin Splitt Warns Against Redirecting 404s To Homepage via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google has released a caller occurrence successful its “SEO Office Hours Shorts” video series, successful which Developer Advocate Martin Splitt addresses a question galore website owners face: Should each 404 mistake pages beryllium redirected to the homepage?

The Clear Answer: Don’t Do It

In the latest installment of the condensed Q&A format, Splitt responds to a question from a idiosyncratic named Chris astir whether “redirecting each 404 pages to the homepage with 301 redirects tin person a antagonistic interaction connected rankings oregon wide website show successful search.”

Splitt’s effect was unambiguous: “Yes, and besides it annoys maine arsenic a user.”

Why 404s Serve A Purpose

404 mistake pages awesome to users and hunt motor crawlers that a URL is breached oregon nonexistent. This transparency helps radical recognize what they’re dealing with alternatively than being unexpectedly redirected to an unrelated page.

Splitt explained:

“A 404 is simply a precise wide awesome this nexus is incorrect and breached oregon this URL nary longer exists due to the fact that possibly the merchandise doesn’t beryllium oregon thing has changed.”

Impact connected Search Crawlers

Splitt says broad redirects to the homepage tin disrupt hunt motor crawlers’ efficiency.

When crawlers brushwood a morganatic 404, they admit that the contented nary longer exists and tin determination connected to different URLs. However, redirecting them to the homepage creates a confusing loop.

Splitt noted:

“For a crawler, they spell similar homepage and past click done oregon fundamentally crawl done your website, uncovering content, and yet they mightiness tally into a URL that doesn’t exist.

But if you redirect, they’re benignant of similar being redirected, and past it each starts implicit again.”

Best Practices for Handling Missing Content

Splitt offered wide guidance connected due redirects:

1. If contented has moved to a caller location, usage a redirect to that circumstantial caller URL
2. If contented is genuinely gone, support the 404 presumption code
3. Don’t redirect to the homepage oregon what you deliberation is the “closest” match

Splitt emphasized:

“If it moved determination else, usage a redirect. If it’s gone, don’t redirect maine to the homepage.”

This latest guidance aligns with Google’s longstanding proposal to support close HTTP presumption codes to assistance users and hunt engines recognize your tract structure.

New Format

The SEO Office Hours Shorts format is simply a caller attack from Google’s Search Relations team.

The archetypal format was a unrecorded amusement wherever anyone could telephone successful and get their questions answered successful existent time.

This format past transitioned to recorded sessions wherever Google unit responded to a enactment of pre-approved questions.

Now, SEO Office Hours is presented arsenic abbreviated videos. If you similar 1 of the erstwhile formats, Splitt encourages feedback successful the comments conception of the video below:

Featured Image: Screenshot from YouTube.com/GoogleSearchCentral, March 2025.

SEJ STAFF Matt G. Southern Senior News Writer astatine Search Engine Journal

Matt G. Southern, Senior News Writer, has been with Search Engine Journal since 2013. With a bachelor’s grade successful communications, ...