404 Errors: Are They Harmful for SEO and How to Fix Them
404s don't penalize a site in themselves, but some lose traffic or links. Here is how to sort and act.
· 2 min read
A 404 error means the requested page doesn't exist (or no longer exists) at that address. Here is how to tell normal 404s from those that need fixing.
Are 404s bad for SEO?
Google states that 404 errors are normal and do not, in themselves, affect the ranking of the rest of the site. A page that doesn't exist should return a 404: that is the right behavior. The problem comes from other situations:
- An important page that disappears by mistake and used to bring traffic.
- External links pointing to a deleted page: their value is lost.
- Broken internal links that degrade the experience and waste crawl time.
- Visitors who hit a dead end.
How to spot 404s
- Google Search Console: the "Page indexing" report lists URLs with "Not found (404)".
- An SEO crawler to find broken internal links.
- Backlink tools to spot backlinks that point to 404s.
- Your site's analytics and server logs to see pages requested without success.
What to do depending on the case
- The page was deleted by mistake: restore it.
- The page was moved: set up a 301 redirect to its new address.
- The content is replaced by an equivalent: 301-redirect to the closest, relevant page.
- The content no longer exists and has no equivalent: leave the 404, or use a 410 code ("permanently removed").
- An internal link is broken: fix the link at the source, rather than adding a redirect.
Don't automatically redirect all 404s to the homepage: an off-topic redirect may be treated by Google as a "soft 404" error and doesn't help visitors.
Soft 404s
A soft 404 is a page that displays a "not found" message but returns a 200 ("success") code. Google may detect it and treat it as an error. Make sure a non-existent page returns a real 404 or 410 code.
Take care of your 404 page
- A clear message explaining that the page doesn't exist.
- Links to the homepage, main categories and a search field.
- The site's design, so visitors don't feel lost.
- A real HTTP 404 code sent by the server.
Priorities
- First, 404s that receive backlinks or traffic.
- Then broken internal links.
- Finally, 404s with no links or traffic, which can be left as they are.