404 Backlink Query

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Michael Martinez: There is no single correct way to handle the situation. All of your choices are good - in certain contexts.
  
  Whether you receive any PageRank-like value for the old link is up to the search engine algorithms. There`s no way to know for sure if a link passes value.
  
  But do people click on that external link?
  
  If so, what do they expect to find? Do you have content that satisfies their expectation? Do you WANT to satisfy their expectation?
  
  Don`t redirect visitors to irrelevant content just for the PageRank-like value.
  
  
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  Kunjal Chawhan: Michael Martinez but it will still be better than showing them a 404 page I am planning to add redirect to closest relevant page
  
  
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  Richard Hearne: > Are backlink to a 404 page even counted as backlinks by Google?
  
  No. If an URL 404s they don`t index it. Links to URLs which 404 are sunk into the abyss (have zero value).
  
  Agree with Michael above - all your options are preferable to doing nothing.
  
  
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  Kunjal Chawhan: Richard Hearne No I meant that the page on my site has gone 404 to which the external site has linked to so in that sense if add 301 to closest relevant page then would that get me some link equity that I maybe losing?
  
  Lets the page that went 404 was /blue-sneakers/ and now I`m redirecting it to /blue-soft-sneakers/
  
  P.S. The external site hasn`t used an anchor text that is descriptive of the old page so would that work then?
  
  
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  Michael Martinez: Kunjal Chawhan Google has said in the past they may not pass link signals through redirects to irrelevant content. Whatever you decide to do, do it for anyone who clicks on the inbound link, not the search engine.
  
  
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  Doc Sheldon: Kunjal Chawhan As has been said by others here, redirecting that 404 URL to another page of RELEVANT content may or may not result in receiving any link equity it may carry, depending upon the search engine`s decision. However, NOT redirecting will definitely result in the loss of that equity.
  
  
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  Kunjal Chawhan: Doc Sheldon Thanks this makes things clearer
  
  
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  Jim Munro: This might be an opportunity to create a page to replace the 404.
  
  
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  Kunjal Chawhan: Jim Munro like reinstating the old url with the previous content or new one