Surely more than once, while surfing the web, you have come across a not-so-attractive page that informed you that a particular resource does not exist. 404 not found - such a message can effectively discourage an internet user from visiting a page again, right? Have you ever wondered whether your site visitors have to deal with such a problem? That's right! Error 404 arouses resentment and can make you lose a potential customer. And these are not the only negative consequences it brings. Read in the article what 404 means for the SEOhow to detect such an error and - above all - how to fix it!
What does a 404 error mean?
A 404 error page always appears when a particular file or subpage not found on the serverand the site owner did not take care of the redirections.
What could lead to an error?
- address URL of the site has been amended (e.g. after a product name change in an online shop)
- the page or subpage has been deleted (e.g. a subpage of a product that is no longer available in the shop)
- changing the URL structure of the website (this may happen if the content management system, shop engine or template has been changed)
- changes to the .htaccess filei.e. in the Apache server configuration file
- cookies and cache files not deleted (may result in an out-of-date page that returns an error)
- malwarewhich has "infected" a page often creates hundreds of new subpages (these are indexed in Google long after they have been removed)
- user misspelled address or clicked on a link that contained an error (e.g. a typo)
The first five causes are related to site administration. The last is user error. This means that, despite the 404 error, the page the Internet user is looking for functions correctly.
Why you should act - 404 error and SEO
Single 404 errors are not a major problem. However, if there are a lot of them, it is important to react as quickly as possible. Why? How does a 404 error code relate to the positioning of your website? It is important to look at this issue from two perspectives: that of the users and that of Google's robots.
You already know that error 404 irritates Internet users. Most of them are not determined enough to find their way to your websites in any other way. So they end their visits, and in you lose valuable traffic and potential customers. When there are many mistakes, it leads to large losses and missed sales opportunities for the company.
And what does it look like from Google's point of view? Imagine that a particular page was ranking quite well for a valuable phrase for the company. For one of the reasons mentioned earlier in the article, a 404 error appears on the page. Google notices that the page's rejection rate is increasing and that it does not meet the expectations of users who come to it. What happens in this case? Its position in Google is falling. In addition, when the situation is not isolated, the rating of the whole site deteriorates.
Despite your best efforts, it may not be possible to completely eliminate 404 errors. For example, these errors may be due to the actions of users (e.g. incorrectly typed address). Therefore, you should be prepared for such a situation and ensure that the error page has an appropriate appearance. What should it contain? A simple error message (understandable to the user), link to the home page of the website or other key subpages. It is also important to ensure that the replacement page is in keeping with the overall design of the website. When creating it, you can also be creative and present the error message in a humorous way.
How do I check if my website has 404 errors?
Now that you know what a 404 error is, I'm sure you're wondering whether your website suffers from it. You may come across it by accident, but this does not happen very often. Therefore, in order to detect 404 errors on a page, you must use the appropriate tools.
Your friend, Google Search Console
The basic tool you should use is a must for every website owner, i.e. Google Search Console. Once the site has been added, wait until the tool has provided all the data about the site. Then select the tab in the menu "Index" --> "Status". Below the graph you will find details, including any errors and how many pages they occur on.
It is worth mentioning that at GSC you can also come across apparent 404 error. These are subpages that do not exist and yet the browser receives a status code of 200, which indicates success. Such an error should be corrected. A non-existent subpage should always return a 404 error.
There is another way to find in Google Search Console 404 error data. Go into the indexing statistics and then find the 'indexing requests by state' section.
Screaming Frog
It is not only Google Search Console that is useful for controlling 404 not found errors. Other programmes (so-called site crawlers) that scan the pages and check the response they get when a request is made. One such programme is Screaming Frog SEO Spider. Its free version allows you to scan 500 subpages of a website. After the scan, you will receive information about the server response codes in the column "Status code".
At this point, the UX - is to keep them for longerThis includes an attractive website design, efficient navigation or responsiveness. It is only by combining SEO and UX that, in 2021, a company website or online shop is guaranteed to achieve the expected success. This by no means means means a complete departure from SEO as we know it. The process that is currently taking place is its evolution, its development, its ascent to a higher level. And all this for the benefit of both Internet users and website owners.
Error 404? Don't panic! Find out how to fix it
Have you checked your sites and it turns out that there is a 404 error? There is no need to break down. The problem affects a great many sites, and you should not be overly afraid of it if it does not appear in excess. And how can you solve it?
- When the problem is "out there" - someone has put the wrong link to your site? If you can, contact them and ask them to correct it. If this is not possible, redirect the erroneous link to a working one.
- When the problem is internal to the site
- product withdrawn from shop - make 301 redirect to a similar product or category
- blog entry has been deleted - do a 301 redirect to a related entry
- engine changed CMS and URL structure - do a 301 redirect to new addresses
The general rule to always apply is: "make a redirect to the most thematically similar page"..
How to do a 301 redirect?
301 redirection is one of dozens of HTTP responses, i.e. information on how the client's request was processed by the server. This means permanently moving the URL in question to another location. Any user who enters an outdated address will be automatically redirected to the new address - it will not display a 404 error page.
If your sites are based on WordPress, you should have no problem implementing a 301 redirect. Simply install the appropriate plugin, for example SEO Press or Redirection. Redirects can also be set up by modifying the .htaccess file. You will read how exactly to do this HERE.
Error 404 not as scary as it sounds
Although the discovery of 404 errors on your pages may initially cause concern, their elimination is not too complicated. First of all, in order to avoid problems with your site's visibility and to avoid hindering its positioning, you should regularly check pages for errors. It's important to set up the right redirects on them, because that way we don't risk losing potential customers and being disfavoured by Google.
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