(Entry was posted by Dante J Funari on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 07/19/2018).

What to do with links that no longer exist?

Redoing a clients site. In terms of the links that will no longer exist upon the new site launch, what is the best practice so that their SEO is not negatively impacted? This is being built on Wordpress.

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YOUR ANSWERS

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

Scott Clark: Which links are you talking about - internal links or links to the site from elsewhere?
Dante J Funari: Internal links throughout the site. I know 301 redirects are preferred. Just wondering is it best handled via a plugin, changes to a specific file, etc etc.
Dave Elliott: 301 redirect to a relevant page. If internal also update them within your content
Michael Martinez: For WordPress sites I prefer to handle internal redirects via a plugin, especially if there are a large number of them. For one thing, you`re far less likely to cause a catastrophic error if you mistype a redirect in a plugin`s matrix. Modifying server configuration files is not a task that should be routinely performed, especially by people who don`t know what to do if they make an error.
Dan Sylvester: https://wordpress.org/plugins/redirection/This is what i use. works great with regex has bulk redirects with logs and groups.Just make sure you 301 to a relevant page.
David Ogletree: Why not keep the old internal links
Benjamin James Barker: 301 redirect everything to the new equivelent page. I`d also suggest changing the internal links to the new URLS as lots of internal 301 redirects aren`t ideal