(Entry was posted by James Maabadi on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 08/20/2013).

How to handle a non-existent URL that`s showing in webmaster tools?

Curious how to handle a non-existent URL that`s showing in webmaster tools. The URL is to a category on the site that does not exist (555).
example: /store.php?catid=555 & pid=123

Should I put the 404 in the header for this URL or redirect(301) to /404.php ?

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YOUR ANSWERS

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

Tony McCreath: Don't redirect to a 404. Partly because when I see this its mostly implemented wrong and the 404 page returns a 200.

Directy return 404 from the header of the page itself.