25/06/2022
Although they seem harmless enough, 404 errors can cause issues for a website, especially if there are a lot of them. Obviously, you can’t do anything about people typing in the address of a webpage incorrectly, but there are steps you can and should take to tackle the other ways they can occur. The first thing to do is find any 404 error pages you have on your website. By the far, the easiest way to do this is by using Google Search Console. (Note: Search Console should be enough to find most 404 errors on small to medium size sites, but if your site has a lot of pages you may need to look at other ways of finding the errors, some of which can require a bit of technical know-how.) If you’ve already got Search Console installed on your site, you can just click Crawl Error > Not found. You’ll then be given a list of URLs that are causing 404 errors. You can click on each URL to view pages that are linking to it. Now, you can start to fix your 404 errors. If you’ve deleted a page and it’s causing 404 errors then you should implement a 301 redirect. A 301 redirect tells web browsers that a page has moved, and directs them to the new address. If the deleted page and replaced it with similar content, then you can simply redirect the old page to its replacement. If there isn’t a replacement, the redirect should point to the most relevant page available. For example, if you run an online fashion retailer and you discontinue a certain style of shoe and want to remove the page, you’d probably want to redirect that page to the general shoe category page. If the address of a page has changed and it’s causing a 404 error, then you can simply redirect the old page to the new one. You should never delete a page, or change a page’s address without putting a 301 redirect in place. If you’re using WordPress, this guide will help you create 301 redirects. If you’re using something else, you can check out this general guide to creating 301 redirects. If the 404 error is caused by a typo in a hyperlink on your website, you can simply edit the hyperlink. If the 404 error is caused by a typo on someone else’s website, it’s worth reaching out to the owner of that website and asking them to fix the link, especially if it’s a large or important site that’s likely to send traffic your way. In some cases, you might find that your request isn’t acted upon. If this is the case, you can always create a 301 redirect from the “typo page” to the correct page. Once you’ve dealt with your existing 404 errors, you should check for new ones once every quarter, or more frequently if your site has a lot of pages. (collected)
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