If you manage your company website, there are certain maintenance steps you need to take to ensure that your website is healthy and performing well. Website errors can significantly impact performance, including visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). Sometimes, changes to a URL or website can result in a 404 error code appearing, which means that the link is broken and the page is not accessible. This article will review what a 404 error is, why they happen, ways you can survey your website to check for 404 errors, and how to fix them if you find a 404 on your website.
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What is a 404 Error and Why Do They Happen?
A 404 error is a kind of HTTP status code that indicates that the page in question is not accessible. This can occur due to a variety of different reasons, but most commonly is caused by human errors. Typos in the page URL and failure to properly redirect a non-active or deleted page are the most common causes of 404 errors.
Supplying your audience with new content, both in the form of existing website content and copy, as well as publishing new pages and blog content, is vital to website performance. However, during this process, it is not unusual for website pages to encounter minor errors, which can result in a 404 or broken link.
How to Check Your Website for 404 Errors
Auditing your website frequently is one of the best ways to get a pulse on overall health and quality. There are many tools available that allow you to audit your website and identify 404 errors. ScreamingFrog is a common website audit tool that allows you to pull every URL on your website, including the metadata, and evaluate performance. Other tools like SEMRush and Google Search Console can also be used to monitor website health and identify issues such as 404 errors.
How to Fix a 404 Error
If you discover that one or multiple URLs on your website are producing a 404 error, you should first take a look at the URL. Click into the URL and confirm the error exists. Most 404 errors are programmed to show some kind of ‘oops’ page instead of redirecting the user to another relevant page. Determine if the page in question is supposed to be live or if you have removed it from the website. If the website page should be live, take a look at the technical aspects of the URL and check for errors. If the page has been removed, ensure you properly 301 redirect it to get rid of the 404 error.
Contact Boston Web Marketing for Professional Digital Marketing Services
At Boston Web Marketing, growing the impact and visibility of your business is our specialty. Having a healthy website with up-to-date content that displays correctly to your users is essential. Our marketing experts are trained to skillfully perform a technical SEO website audit and correct any existing issues to boost performance. To get started, give our team a call at 857-349-5062.