Framework: The Internal 404 Sweep (before you chase anyone else's)

Framework: The Internal 404 Sweep (before you chase anyone else's)

Reclaim link equity you already earned before prospecting outward.

Stage 1 — Crawl: run Screaming Frog on your own domain, response code report.
Stage 2 — Triage: split 404s into (a) had backlinks, (b) had internal links only, (c) orphan.
Stage 3 — Decide per bucket:
— Bucket A → 301 to the closest live equivalent.
— Bucket B → fix the internal link source.
— Bucket C → ignore or restore if traffic history exists.
Stage 4 — Verify: re-crawl, confirm zero chained redirects (max one hop).

— Automation fits at Stage 1: scheduled monthly crawl, diff against last run.

Definition of done: every backlinked 404 resolves with a single 301 to a topically-matched live page, re-crawl shows 200.