Why does a Semrush traffic matter to you? It's just an estimate.

Your analytics data are the real data that you should base your decisions on.

Yes, hit me up via the contact in the footer.

Honestly, I don't think you have too many options.

There are basically only two big ones - Semrush and Ahrefs (Semrush being the bigger one in data volume). And their tiers/pricing is similar.

Maybe I can help you get some data if interested.

You're losing link value, but that's obvious. If the redirected domain has spammy backlink profile, breaking the 301 connection will help. I am not sure what else could you potentially lose though?

As always, the best defense is strong backlink profile.

This is just a general warning about a scam that is going around and I have received this inquiry too.

The scenario is pretty simple;

• Someone contacts you from a random gmail address (not a real person). In my case, it was Lunaco Masson, but I also heard about Asher Barin. Other names and emails are likely being used as well.
• They ask you for a guest post cost and potential link insertion. This is the message I have received:

To my dear

I hope this communication reaches you in good health.

I work as a freelancer in the SEO industry, representing clients. I was quite pleased by your website's continually interesting and educational information while browsing it.

I'm curious to know if you're amenable to incorporating contextual links into your current articles and posting sponsored posts on your website.

How much does a guest post cost?
How much does it cost to insert a link?
The cost of the casino?

I would appreciate it if you could let me know your most affordable rates for posting and links, if such chances are available.

I appreciate your thought and time.

I explain what is possible and what is not. Then, five days later, I have received another message:

Business Proposal for Banner Advertising

I'm talking to BRAD STONE from BLOOMBERG (Bloomberg.com)

We're launching a new website (bloombergsources.com) where we'll share business ideas. We'd like to add a banner to your website. If you're interested, you can contact us via this Gmail or my professional email (bradstone@bloombergsources.com
You can also visit our new website (bloombergsources.com)

Terms of the Proposal

Banner Placement 
Our banner will be live on your website for 4 months

Payment
We'll pay you $2100 for the 4-month period

Payment Terms
Payment will be made within 7 working days

Removal 
If we need to remove the ad, you'll remove it.

Next Steps
If you're interested, please get in touch with us via email to discuss further

Thanks

and another one:

Hi,
I have sent you the link anchor and paragraph, You have to add the paragraph to the sidebar of your website
Link
Bloombergsources.com
Anchor
Bloomberg Sources
You can choose any of the paragraphs and add them to the sidebar of your website.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Global customers rely Bloomberg Sources to deliver accurate, real-time business and market-moving information that helps them make critical financial decisions please contact: michael@bloombergsources.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Global customers rely Bloomberg Sources to deliver accurate, real-time business and market-moving information that helps them make critical financial decisions please contact
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please add our company details and mention that this ad will be for four months.
PayPal ID: michael@bloombergsources.com
Registered Address: 3 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4N 4TQ UK
Vat Number: 718787092
I'm Waiting
Thanksa 

Funny thing is that they are sending VAT Number (not existing anymore for GB since they are out of EU) but you can easily find a Bloomberg L.P. is behind this VAT ID, which makes it seem legitimate. But it's not.

This scam goes like this: you publish their backlink, you receive no payment and eventually they will try to make you pay them for an article publishing services on "their" website (bloomberg.com and their other real online assets). But do not expect your article to show up there.

Just a heads up for other webmaster out there.

It's not a good idea to submit your URL randomly to websites that allow you to do that. In 99% of case these links have zero value and could even cause minor harm because spammers would use them too.

Stay relevant within your niche, share info worth sharing and link to, and people will do that for you. Or be proactive and find backlink opportunities on websites that are worth being linked from in your niche... Whatever works for you.

I think the answer is already up there, but I'll try to sum it up for you.

I don't see a use case for so called "soft 404". Returning HTTP 200 while notifying visitor that the page they came for doesn't exist is an anti-pattern and if you're looking to get more traffic while using those non-existing pages, it won't work anyway. Google understands the content of the page and will mark the page as 404, but it wastes your site's crawl budget. Do not use soft 404 unless you know why you're doing it.

Hi Lisa.

Guys at Search Engine Journal published nice article about 404 errors / error pages. I highly recommend it to read it, so you better understand what are they and when you should use 404 or eventually, how to fix 404 errors.

Check the full article here: 404 vs. soft 404 errors

However, to answer your question; 404 error means the page is missing, but the server responded with 200 (even it probably should be returning 404 or other 4xx HTTP response code). Google, with all the data, knows what are common patterns of 404 pages, so even after getting 200, they may flag the page in their index as missing (404).

What you should do is: return 404 code AND show 404 page, when the page is missing. Otherwise, you're telling user/search engine, that the requested page exists.

Hi there. I already answered this in original soft 404 error thread where you also posted this question recently.

Use 404 HTTP status code if possible.

Thank you and sorry.

Hi seoforum, nice to sign up here.

Do you prefer hard 404 server response or soft 404 page? I found out my Wordpress page has some soft 404 pages and I am not sure if I should go for 404 status or keep them 200.

What is the best solution to a missing page? Returning 404 status code or keep it 200 and make sure people understand the content is gone or doesn't exist?