You are browsing a website and suddenly… “404 Not Found”. Surely it has happened to you more than once and more than once you have wanted to call the manager of the website in question and sing the forty. Because encountering a 404 error is one of the most disastrous experiences that can occur on a website.
The opposite can also happen, and that you are the manager of the website where the 404 errors appear. If this is the case, “keep calm and carry on”. we tell you how to detect these errors and how to fix them.
What is a 404 Not Found Error?
The HTTP 404 is one of the most common errors that we can find while browsing a website. But do you know what this error actually is?
Definition of 404 Not Found error according to:
Resource not found. It is used when the web server cannot find the requested page or resource.
Definition of 404 error according to:
HTTP 404 Not Found or HTTP 404 Not Found is an HTTP status code that indicates that the host has been able to communicate with the server, but the requested resource does not exist.
More simply defined, we could say that the HTTP response code 404 indicates that the URL you are trying to access does not exist.
What is the Error 404 not found due to?
The appearance of a 404 Error on a website can occur due to different causes. Here are some of the most common:
1. External page removed
Often these errors are caused by a link we have on our website that leads to an external page that has been removed.
2. Internal content removed
On numerous occasions we begin to make changes to our website that involve changes to the URLs, either because we delete the page or because we change some type of configuration that may affect them, as is the case with “permalinks” in WordPress, which apply changes to the URL structure. When we make a change to the URL, the source URL is lost, so when trying to access we will come face to face with a “404 Not Found”.
Although they are the least common, some users enter the URL directly in the browser and they can do it the wrong way, result? The misspelled URL will not be found, resulting in a 404 response code (phew! Thankfully, the vast majority of us trust Google for our searches, even to access our own website).
But also, among the most common causes that can produce the 404 Not Found error are:
- The web server is not online at the moment because it has gone down.
- We are having problems with our Internet connection.
- After redesigning a website, some of the links have not been inserted correctly after changing the URLs. For example, a typical failure is that the old one is kept without having made a redirection.
- The domain name does not exist, or due to problems with the DNS servers the correct IP is not being offered.
this bug, as long as the content is not deleted, it is easy to solve for webmasters or developers. The solution is to redirect the link to the new landing page. On major search engines, we found that some results were moved and removed, resulting in the 404 error.
This happens because the changes were not redirected and reported correctly. It is important to note that not doing this correctly could mean a drop in PageRank.
then let’s see how to detect 404 errors
How to detect 404 errors on your website
We must be clear that having this error in the links on our site will affect our . Therefore, to keep our website in the best possible conditions, it is important detect if we have broken links to remove or repair them. There are numerous tools to detect 404 errorsboth free and paid. We show you some of the most used:
Google Search Console
It is the star tool of SEOs also in this field. And also free. Accessing the report of “coverage” we can easily see which of our URLs are excluded for not being found (404). The only “but” is that, being from Google, this tool only reports Googlebot errors, ignoring the rest of the bots.
Screaming Frog
is the leading tool for web error analysis. Although its paid version has many more features, in its free version 500 URLs can be tracked, so it can be valid for small sites.
In the tab “Response Codes” we can filter the URLs of our site according to the response of the server, including the HTTP 404 codes. In this way we can access all the URLs that report this error to us and export said information.
In addition, it has a very useful additional functionality: it allows you to export the data of the links that lead to pages that give a 404 error, which includes the reference URL of the link, the anchor text or alt text, and the destination URL of the link . To export this information you must select, in the upper panel, “Bulk Export” – “Response Codes” – “Client Error (4xx) Inlinks”.
W3C Link Checker
is a free online platform that crawls the web and reports both internal and external 404 errors, as well as other response codes that may be useful to know.
semrush
It is a very useful paid tool for website monitoring and positioning, with many features. Among them, auditing the website to detect improvements. Creating a project in Semrush and enabling the “site Audit” we will be able to track our site, which includes 404 errors.
Check My Links
is a Chrome extension that allows us to detect at a glance the broken links of a certain URL. Although it is useful to quickly detect links with 404 destination, it must be accessed page by page, so if we have many broken links, the work becomes tedious and long.
Broken Link Checker
it’s a wordpress-plugins that allows us to automatically scan our website, detecting those links that do not lead to any other site. It is capable of analyzing both internal and external links. In addition, it will allow you to always stay alert, since it has the option of receiving an email indicating that a new broken link has been registered on your website. A very effective option to improve the usability of your website instantly!
How to fix a 404 Not Found Error?
Although it is natural that 404 errors appear throughout the life of our website, the truth is that if these represent a high percentage on our website, may end up billing our , since, on the one hand, we inevitably lose crawl budget (crawl budget) on pages that do not interest us and, on the other, we provide a bad user experience on our website, which Google will value as negative, since its algorithm has factors related to the user experience are increasingly taken into account. That’s why we give you some guidelines for you to get rid of them sooner.
Perform a 301 redirect
If we have modified the URL but we keep the content, the ideal is to make a 301 (permanent) redirection that directs the user (and Google) from the deleted URL to the new one. However, we must bear in mind that, even if we redirect the URL, we must make a modification on the destination page of the links that lead to the deleted URL, since, if not, we will lose, once again, (crawl Budget), in addition to making the user wait unnecessarily for the final page to load.
remove the urls
In the event that the URL has been removed and the content will no longer exist, it is best to notify Google so that it stops crawling and indexing it. We can do this quickly and easily through the functionality “url removal” of Google Search Console. It should be noted that the URL is only removed for 90 days unless, once we have removed it, we mark the error as fixed in the “Coverage” report. In this case, like when we perform a redirect, we need to modify the links that lead to the removed page.
In short, if the 404 Not Found error still appears after trying this series of solutions, it is most likely that such content is no longer present on the website you are visiting.
And what about the 404 soft error?
The soft error 404 is a type of error code invented by Google to tell users webmaster that although the server is offering a 200 code, that page does not actually exist or leads to content without any value. (Usually parameterized urls, dynamic urls). This usually also happens when the redirection made does not meet the criteria recommended by Google for 301 redirections, that is, Google classifies some redirections (300 codes) as 404 soft errors because it considers that the pages redirect to other pages that either have no value for the content or do not correspond. This type of soft 404 error it usually appears in Search Console when we perform bulk redirects (in a migration, for example). It is a very typical error when massive redirection processes are carried out, and SEO is not taken into account, that many urls are sent to the Home page or to first level categories. In these cases, Google detects it and marks these redirections as a soft 404 error and therefore does not transfer the SEO rating that those URLs that no longer exist or have changed previously had. What Google recommends is that 301 redirects have to be to similar pages because their url has changed (but their internal content has not), although it would also apply to very similar pages. The clear example may be an e-commerce product that no longer exists, but has been replaced by another superior or similar model. In this case, Google would accept that redirection as valid and would not mark it as 404 soft error.
Importance of Page 404
Although the ideal is minimize the number of 404 errorsit is always positive that, in addition, let’s optimize our 404 page, since, with a little creativity, we can increase the satisfaction of users who land on a page with this response code. Because “mistakes with grace are fewer mistakes.”
3 Great Examples of 404 Not Found Error Pages
1.EasyJet
The 404 error page of the airline EasyJet is one of the best examples that can be shown. This is because it not only shows a funny image of a penguin lost in the savannah with the lions, but also offers links of interest to the user. In this case, EasyJet has found the balance between originality and utility on your 404 page.
2.Lego
the page of 404 Not Found error of Lego could not miss as one of the best examples. As in the previous case, the image that appears on this page is very original and fun, especially if you are a fan of Lego. The good work of this page is found in the use of the product within the…
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