redirect 404 to my homepage

i have many old url where i have make a redirect 404 to homepage

its a problem for google?

google punnish that?

 

no, just do a 301 redirect and you'll be cool.

 

Use 301. Google will not punish you. They allow it.

 

ok but i dont know howmake that
i have in my htacces

ErrorDocument 404 /index.php

if i make ErrorDocument 301 /index.php
it dont work

 

Google will regularly test if you handle real 404 error, where the page does not exist. If you give a 301, it will give you trouble

 

If there are old urls, you should use 404.
301 is used to tell google the same page is moved to another location, which is wrong in your case.
Don't now actually will google punish for that, but correct behavior is to use 404 in your case.

 

No, it is completely wrong to make a redirect 404 to homepage. If you do that indeed, it may make Google regard your homepage as a 404 page too. Then, obviously, your site will be punished by Google!

 

You should only use a 301 redirect to indicate that a page has moved permanently. If the page no longer exists then set up a 404 page (not your homepage) with a short message indicating that the page no longer exists.

 

As above said, you have to handle the situation by doing 301 redirect and not 404, which is a "not found" error. These sources can help you.

SEO advice: url canonicalization

301 redirects guideline - Google Webmaster Central

Some interesting discussion about this issue

How can I prevent serving multiple 301 redirects?

Details about 301 and 302 differentiate and more - Lost Along the Way: Using 301 and 302 Redirects