Do links to non-existent pages count as linkbacks?

So basically I had a gaming blog and some of the stories published were linked to from big sites like 360fanboy and ps3fanboy (among others). I've now changed to a CMS and scrapped the blog (along with the content I had) and started all over again.

Will I still get credit for the links from the big sites even though the pages they link to no longer exist?

 

you can use 301 redirect. you can create a permanent redirect to the home page

 

Ok sounds good. I've used 301 re-directs to get from non-www to www url but that's all.

I'm assuming you basically forward all 404 error pages to the index? If so, how do I do that?

 

Do NOT forward all 404's to the index (Can this even be done?). 301 every page that WAS there to the new content individually.

 

Ah, that would take some time plus I can't remember all the links. Will have to just leave it then.

 

Just track your webserver's log files to see where the 404 errors are happening and forward them using 301 to your index page