404 Error

Why It Matters

404 errors frustrate users and increase bounce rates. While they don't directly hurt rankings, they waste crawl budget, prevent link equity transfer, and create poor user experience. Fixing 404s improves site quality signals and user satisfaction.

How It Works

When a URL is requested but doesn't exist, the server returns a 404 status code. Google Search Console reports 404 errors found during crawling. High-quality 404 pages with navigation options reduce user frustration, while critical 404s should be fixed with redirects.

Use Cases

• A site discovers 500 404 errors in Search Console, fixes most critical ones with 301 redirects, reduces bounce rate by 8%
• An e-commerce site creates custom 404 page with search and popular products, converting 15% of error visits to sales
• A blog fixes 404 errors on pages with backlinks, recovering link equity and improving rankings for related pages

Best Practices

• Monitor 404 errors weekly in Google Search Console to catch issues early
• Implement 301 redirects for important pages with backlinks or traffic to relevant alternatives
• Create custom 404 page with search, site navigation, and helpful content instead of generic error
• Fix broken internal links that cause 404s to prevent frustrating users
• Return proper 404 status code for missing pages - don't soft 404 (200 status for missing pages)
• Prioritize fixing 404s on pages with external backlinks to recover link equity