How to Identify and Fix 404 Errors for Better SEO Rankings
Summary: Understanding what causes a 404 error can help businesses fix any broken links and ensure their website is well-functioning, which results in a higher conversion rate and optimized user experience. This guide helps you understand what is a 404 error, the key concepts related to Error 404 messages, the types of 404 errors and how they can affect your user experience and SEO.
Key Takeaways:-
- A 404 message is the standard code for a webpage problem.
- A deleted or moved page/content is the most common reason for a 404 message showing up.
- There are two types of 404 errors – hard errors and soft errors.
- You can check for broken pages or 404 messaging using Google Search Console, secret browser tools or even by manual testing.
Encountering an “Error 404 Page Not Found” message can be frustrating for users and problematic for website owners. This common HTTP error indicates that a webpage is missing or unavailable, often due to broken links, deleted content, or incorrect URLs.
What is a 404 Error? How Does it Affect Your Website?
A 404 error message is the standard HTML code for a webpage problem. In other words, this means the server hosting your website is unable to display the page. While 404 errors don’t directly affect your website’s SEO, managing and fixing them is still critical.
Frequent broken links can lead to frustration among website visitors, increase your bounce rate, and damage your website’s credibility. Additionally, having a well-placed backlink that leads to a deleted page can result in lost organic traffic if it isn’t redirected.
Ensuring your website has minimal errors reinforces trustworthiness and professionalism. When you look at SEO more holistically, you see how big a difference it makes to manage the little details. One effective way to stay on top of these issues is by regularly using a website seo audit checklist, which helps you identify and resolve broken links, technical errors, and missed SEO opportunities.
Besides SEO concerns, site quality is essential for complying with Google Ad Grants and similar programs that require websites to be free of broken links. Failing to meet these requirements can affect your website’s eligibility.
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What Causes a 404 Error?
As a 404 error is quite widespread across a website, the reasons for the same also range from complex to simple. Some of the most common issues are:
- Moved or deleted pages: If you move or delete a page, the URL becomes a broken link, and both users and crawlers will see a 404 error.
- Modified slugs: Changing a slug can cause broken links, resulting in old URLs showing the error message.
- Incorrect URL: When a user incorrectly types or misspells a URL in the address bar, it can give a 404 error code.
- DNS misconfiguration: If the DNS or Domain Name System is configured to the wrong address, 404 error codes can appear on your website.
- Cache problem: Misconfigured cache-control settings can prevent proxies or browsers from loading the latest versions, which leads to 404 errors.
- Missing page assets: Images, CSS or JavaScript files missing from your page can also trigger 404 error messages.
- .htaccess misconfiguration: Wrong information in your .htaccess file, like wrong file permissions, rules or redirects, can also lead to 404 errors.
- Check redirects: If you have set up a redirect, make sure it works properly. A misconfigured redirect can lead to a 404 error.
How 404 Errors Affect SEO and User Experience?
404 errors may seem harmless, but they can have a significant impact on your website’s search engine optimization (SEO). When search engine crawlers encounter too many 404 pages, it can disrupt the crawl flow and waste valuable crawl budgets, especially on large websites. This means important pages might be overlooked, leading to reduced visibility in search results.
Additionally, broken internal or external links leading to 404 errors can negatively affect user experience, causing visitors to leave your site prematurely — increasing bounce rates and lowering engagement signals that search engines consider in their ranking algorithms.
From an SEO strategy perspective, addressing 404 errors is crucial. Regularly auditing your site for broken links, implementing proper 301 redirects for removed content, and customizing your 404 page to guide users back to relevant content are essential steps to maintain a healthy and user-friendly website that ranks well in search engines.
Different Types of 404 Errors: Hard vs. Soft
Before you can fix all your 404 errors, you must understand the difference between hard 404 and soft 404 errors. The signals exchanged between a page and a search bot can help you understand it better. Based on them, 404 errors can be categorised into two categories.
Hard 404 Error
A hard 404 error is the HTTP status code for pages without any resources. When the server doesn’t redirect pages, search bots crawl through empty pages and receive clear 404 error codes from those pages. This tells search bots that this page should not be indexed as it doesn’t exist.
Over time, Google will remove this page from its search results. As a result, crawlers can focus on the pages you wish to index, making it easier to understand the intent behind your website.
To check your website’s 404 status yourself,
- Open your Chrome browser
- Turn on developer tools
- Click on Inspect Page
- Go to the Network option
You should see the status immediately. If you don’t, reload the page.
Soft 404 Error
On the other hand, a soft 404 error is not a genuine error code. Instead of sending a 404 error, the server sends a 200 OK signal to the search engine by redirecting them. This makes the search engine believe that the page is still running even though it might not be.
Some webmasters transfer link juice to existing pages from missing pages using this method.
But you should know, if your redirected content doesn’t match the user’s search intent, it can confuse users and search engines and negatively impact your business website’s visibility.
Here’s a comparison of hard vs. soft 404 errors:
| Type of 404 Error |
Description |
HTTP Status Code |
Impact |
| Hard 404 |
The server correctly responds with a 404 error when a page doesn’t exist. |
404 |
Expected behavior; helps search engines understand the page is gone. |
| Soft 404 |
The page appears missing but returns a 200 (OK) status code. |
200 |
Misleads search engines can hurt SEO by indexing non-existent pages. |
How to Identify 404 Errors on Your Website?
If you’re wondering how to check your website’s 404 error page, there are multiple ways to do it.
Use Google Search Console:
Search Console allows you to track 404 errors once you connect it to your website. Once you log in, head to ‘Page Indexing’ and then click ‘Not Found (404)’ to get a list of all the URLs giving out 404 errors.
Check Server Logs:
You can check your server access logs using Cpanel (/var/log/apache2/access.log for Apache) or (/var/log/nginx/access.log for Nginx) to find any URLs returning 404 errors.
Browser Developer Tools:
Open the developer tools in your Chrome browser. Go to the Network tab, reload your page and search for any requests that show 404 status codes.
Website Crawlers:
Ahrefs, Screaming Frog and SEMrush are some of the web crawling tools that you can use to scan your website for broken links.
Manual testing:
If you suspect any URL is broken, you can manually enter the address into the search bar to confirm whether there is a problem with that link or not.
How to Fix 404 Errors: A Step-by-Step Guide?
Fixing a 404 error is not difficult, but it requires precision when it comes to the implications. The solutions vary depending on the types of URL or the cause of the problem.
Deleting or modifying URLs from referring pages
To modify or delete a 404 error page, identify the source page that instructs search engines about the broken page link. Web crawlers and tools like Google Search Console can help you achieve this. Once you find the page you are referring to, decide on which action you should take based on the problem. If you have mistyped the URL, you can simply correct your link address. If the website content is not available, remove the broken link entirely to get rid of the message.
Deleting expired pages from your sitemap
This can be done in different ways depending on the website platform you are using. If you have a WordPress website, simply go to the plugin settings to manage your sitemap. If you have a custom-coded sitemap, here’s how you can do it.
- Select the old page from your sitemap.
- Remove the URL from <url> to <url>
- Once you have deleted that part of the code, upload your latest sitemap to the server again. This will make Google automatically crawl your website and update the information.
Editing a Rank Math sitemap
- Go to the ‘Page Edit’ section on your WordPress dashboard.
- Copy your Post ID from the URL.
- Finally, go to Sitemap Settings in the plugin. Scroll till you see the Exclude Posts option. Past the Post ID of every post you want to exclude, separated by commas.
- Save your changes to automatically remove the page from your sitemap.
What is Custom 404? How Can You Handle Custom 404 Error Pages?
You might have noticed that several websites have custom 404 error pages with a little more creative messaging than the regular 404 Page Not Found pop-up. Here are a few examples:
Creating such custom 404 pages requires a little extra design and coding. The main reason behind creating such a page is to replace the blunt messaging that could drive users away.
Best practices for Custom 404 Error Pages
- Include a search bar: Make sure you add a search bar that lets users search for what they want across your site, instead of stopping them in their journey.
- Include important links: A 404 error page is essentially a dead end. You can either ask users to go back, or you can add important links that allow users to continue their journey through your website.
- Don’t let users feel like they made a mistake: The messaging on your website should explain the problem lightly and casually. It should not make the user feel like it’s their fault for having clicked a broken link on your site.
Conclusion
The 404 Error Not Found error is, unfortunately, not something you can eliminate permanently. You will come across them from time to time when you migrate your website, create new pages or switch your code. An expert technical SEO services team can help you to consistently monitor your website for errors and recommend and implement the best solutions to avoid them. Get in touch with our team today.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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What are the best tools to fix 404 errors?
While you can’t fix all 404 errors in one go or permanently, tools such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, Google Search Console and Screaming Frog can make it easier to detect and eliminate them.
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What are the two main reasons for a 404 error message?
You will mainly see a 404 error message when the resource is deleted or removed. When you have already deleted a resource or link, the existing link is still clickable. However, the user will see a 404 error message.
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Does a 404 error message affect your SEO?
404 errors are common. However, if left unchecked or not fixed, they can increase your website’s bounce rate and cart abandonment rate, resulting in reduced credibility and poorer SEO rankings.
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