I run an e-commerce site, now my main problem is that google has indexed 500 of my pages while there are only 100 which are active. I keep removing and adding pages depending on the product availability. Is it hurting my rankings since these pages have been bookmarked and they exist as 404 errors? I have a custom 404 page, should i redirect those pages? I also regularly update my sitemap Can someone suggest me how should i go about it?
The only solution of removing 404 pages is to redirect them to your hoe page some other relevant page, keeping the user experience in mind. Updating your website is good, but do not remove your pages so frequently until they are old enough to get removed or getting no traffic.