Everything You Need to Know About 404 Errors

You are searching for something online, you click on a promising link, expecting to land on the exact page you need. But instead, you’re met with a message—404 Page Not Found. 

You may be wondering why the page did not open? Did the page get deleted? Is it a website issue or your connection? More importantly, can you fix it? 

A 404 error is one of the most common issues you can encounter when browsing on the web. However, if you see 404 errors popping up across your entire website, blocking off access to content that isn’t missing, you’ll need to take proper steps. 

Understanding how to resolve this effectively is crucial for user experience and SEO. In this guide, we’ll explore what 404 errors are, its impact on your website, common causes and how you can fix them. 

What is a 404 error? 

A 404 error is an HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) response code indicating that the requested page does not exist—either because it was moved, deleted or never existed in the first place, often due to a mistyped URL (Uniform Resource Locator) The error message typically looks like ‘404 Not Found,’ meaning the server found nothing at that address. 

Occasionally, servers return 404 page not found errors when the page you’re looking for exists but is hidden. 

If you encounter a 404 error, it may come in one of these variations: 

• 404 Not Found Error
• 404 Page Not Found
• HTTP 404 Not Found
• The requested page URL was not found on this server 
• File or directory not found

However, there’s more to the 404 error than just a missing page. It signals the browser and search engines that you cannot retrieve the requested resource. When anyone trying to visit your website encounters this error, it can disrupt their experience and hurt your site’s SEO efforts if left unresolved. 

Types of 404 errors  

404 errors can appear differently, depending on the cause and server configuration. Here are some common types: 

1. Hard 404: This error occurs when a page is genuinely missing and the server correctly returns a 404 HTTP status code. This type of error is expected when a page has been deleted or never existed. 

2. Soft 404: Unlike a hard 404, a soft 404 is not a server’s official response status code. Instead, it happens when a server sends a “200 OK” status code (showing success) for a page that doesn’t exist. The page’s content, however, tells the user that the page is missing. This can confuse search engines, causing issues with indexing and SEO rankings. The server says the page is valid, but the content shows it is not. 

3. Server-side vs. client-side 404 errors:
   • Server-side 404 errors: These occur due to incorrect server configurations, deleted resources or server permission issues preventing access to the requested content. A related issue can be the 500 Internal Server Error, indicating that the server encountered an unexpected condition. 
   • Client-side 404 errors: These arise from user-side issues, such as mistyped URLs, broken links or incorrectly entered web addresses. 

Most of the time, when people talk about 404 errors, they refer to the hard 404 status. The rest of this article will be focused on hard 404 errors. 

Most common causes of a 404 error

404 errors are one of the most common types of errors on the web. Many causes can lead to you seeing one, ranging from simple mistakes to significant server issues.

Here are a few examples of things that could result in you landing on a 404 error page:

1. Incorrect URL: This is caused by mistyping or misspelling a URL. It can also be caused by plugin errors breaking your URLs.
2. Moved or deleted webpage: If you delete your content or move it to a different page, a 404 error will appear when you try to find it at the original URL. This can also be caused by changing the URL slug: the part of the URL that identifies a specific page on your website.
3. Missing page assets: If you’ve noticed several 404 errors in your website’s error log, the most likely culprits are missing assets (like images) or broken HTML.
4. Hosting or server misconfiguration: Various misconfigurations can lead to a 404 error code, from improper file permissions to a broken .htaccess file.
5. DNS misconfigurations: If your domain name system (DNS) points to the wrong address, you may receive 404 error status codes across your website.

Why you should fix 404 errors?

The occasional 404 error page is nothing to be concerned about. According to Google, they don’t impact your other pages’ rankings. And more often than not, they can be resolved by simply ensuring that the URL you typed is correct.

However, there are several reasons why you may still want to fix them. 

First, if 404 errors result from your web server or DNS acting up, you’ll want to resolve them as soon as possible, as they are often systemic and could affect a large portion of your site.

Fixing these errors may require identifying the underlying issues, like server misconfigurations, problems with your site’s code or issues with your DNS setup.

You’ll also want to address instances of random 404 errors replacing pages that should have content. Bots can’t crawl those specific pages, meaning they won’t appear on search engines, which hurts your SEO efforts.

And while 404 errors caused by broken links are generally harmless, it’s still a good idea to fix them for a variety of reasons including:

1. Negative user experience

When users land on a 404 error page, they’re often frustrated by the inability to find the content they were looking for, which compromises a positive user experience. This frustration can lead to a poor user experience, higher bounce rates and users abandoning your site in search of better options. Creating a custom 404 page is considered a best practice and can help lessen the blow of the occasional 404 error that pops up. This custom error page can be an excellent opportunity to strengthen your brand image and direct visitors to your homepage or search pages. 

2. SEO consequences

From an SEO standpoint, 404 errors can damage your rankings. If search engines frequently crawl pages that lead to 404s, it wastes valuable crawl budget and prevents important pages from being indexed. Additionally, if your site has 404 errors, it can negatively affect your site’s authority in the eyes of search engines. 

3. Could lose valuable backlinks

If an external website once linked to a page on your site has now been moved or deleted, that’s free traffic being wasted. 

4. Crawl efficiency

Search engines like Google rely on efficient crawling of your website to index pages and rank them appropriately. When a crawler hits a 404 error repeatedly, it reduces crawl efficiency and may prevent other pages on your website from being indexed. 

But if you want to get to the root of the problem, you’ll need to learn how to spot and fix 404 code errors when you encounter them. 

How to identify 404 errors?

You can use various methods to detect 404 error codes on your website. The easiest is by clicking a link and being led to a 404 page. This is an example of a broken link 404 error.

These broken links, also known as dead links or “link rot,” happen for a few reasons, such as pages being moved or deleted, permalink structure changing, the URL slug being updated or the entire domain being migrated.

Broken links can exist within your website (internal links) or come from external backlinks. Obviously, you don’t want to spend your time checking every single link on your website to make sure it leads to the right page, so here are a few other ways you can double-check and identify dead links:

• Google Search Console’s Page Indexing Report can identify 404 errors on your website.
• Link checkers like Dead Link Checker can crawl your website and report any broken links.
• WordPress plugins like Broken Link Checker can scan your website for dead links, including internal and external links.

Now that you’re armed with a couple of methods of identifying 404 error codes on your website, let’s discuss some of the most common ways to fix them.

Fixing 404 errors: Step-by-step guide 

Fixing 404 errors is usually a simple process. Dead and broken links can be fixed by implementing redirects. If the problem isn’t localized to your machine, then various simple server fixes should do the trick. 

To fix a 404 error, follow these steps: 

• Check your browser 
• Redirecting Broken URLs (301 Redirects) 
• Disable plugins and themes 
• Fix file permissions 
• Configure .htaccess file 
• Check the domain and DNS settings 
• Fixing Soft 404 Errors 
• Updating Internal and External Links 

1. Check your browser

Sometimes, 404 error codes are caused by issues on your device rather than problems with your website. Because of this, you should always start with these straightforward solutions before moving on to the more involved fixes:

• Confirm that the URL is free of typos.
• Clear your browser cache: Your browser may have cached an earlier version of the page.
• Restart your web browser, such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
• Visit the link in a private/incognito window. This will often disable problem-causing extensions.
• Try the link on a different device.
• Ask a friend on a different network to try the link.

If none of these methods work, the issue likely isn’t just client-side. In that case, you’ll have to take a more in-depth look at your website to try and diagnose the problem.

2. Set up 301 redirects

Whether dead links leading to 404s are coming from outside your website, from your links or commonly mistyped URLs, it’s a good idea to set up a redirect that will send visitors to the correct page.

Dead internal links can usually be handled by just fixing the incorrect URL they’re pointing to, but if you have too many broken links to fix manually, you can set up redirects instead.

Usually, you’ll want to use a 301 redirect, which indicates that the page has been moved permanently. If this is a temporary move and the original page will be restored, use a 302 redirect instead.

There are a few ways to do this. You can manually set up a redirect or install a WordPress plugin to do it for you, such as Yoast SEO Premium — a popular plugin that comes with a whole suite of SEO benefits.

Once you’ve installed the plugin, head to Yoast and Redirects. Then, fill out the Old URL and the new URL.

Bluehost users can easily redirect a page from their dashboard.

• Log in to your control panel.
• Click the Domains tab from the menu on the left.
• Navigate to Manage > Redirects. 

• In the Add Redirect box, enter the old and new URLs and click Add Redirect. 
• Test it out to make sure the page is redirecting to where you want it.

3. Disable plugins and themes

Are you getting strange 404 error codes you can’t account for? If you’re using a WordPress site, you may want to try temporarily disabling some of your plugins or switching to a different theme. Before doing this, always back up your website in case something unexpected happens.

• To disable your theme, log in to the WordPress dashboard and navigate to Appearance and then Themes.
• Select the theme you’d like to switch to and click Activate.

If the 404 error codes go away, you may want to consider using a different theme for your WordPress site.

If the issue persists, the next step is to deactivate all the plugins you’ve installed on your WordPress site.

• Go to Plugins and click on Installed Plugins. Then check the box above the list of plugins to select them all.
• Next, click the drop-down menu that says Bulk actions and select Deactivate before clicking Apply.

This will deactivate all the plugins on your site. Test if the error went away. If it did, re-enable the plugins one by one to identify the culprit.

You can also deactivate plugins and themes through the Bluehost dashboard.

4. Fix file permissions

If you’re having trouble with a specific page displaying a 404 error code, it may be due to incorrect file permissions for certain assets on that page, such as images of Javascript.

• To fix this, you can access the file manager in the Bluehost control panel by navigating to Advanced > Files > File Manager.
• While navigating the file manager, look for the folder that contains the asset you believe to be causing the problem.
• Select the file, then scroll up to the icon to change file permissions at the top. Make sure Read permissions are on, then click Change permissions.

Check to see if the 404 error has been fixed. If it hasn’t, change the permissions back to where they were.

5. Configure .htaccess file

Sometimes the .htaccess file can become corrupted or misconfigured, resulting in inappropriate 404 error codes. You can remove and regenerate this file to potentially fix the issue. Just make sure to create a backup of your website before you do.

WordPress users can easily fix a malfunctioning .htaccess file by updating the permalinks.

• To do this, go to Settings on your WordPress dashboard.
• Select Permalinks and click Save Changes without touching any of the settings. This will often reset the .htaccess file and fix any unusual issues you may be having.

If that doesn’t help, try accessing the .htaccess file manually via FTP (file transfer protocol).

• Start by creating an FTP account. Make a note of your credentials, then download FileZilla or an equivalent FTP program that you can use to access your website.
• .htaccess is located in the root directory, so it should be visible without clicking any folders. Back up this folder to your computer, then delete it.
• Now check to see if the 404 error code is resolved. If it isn’t, restore the .htaccess file.
• If it is, manually generate a new .htaccess file through FTP or go to Settings > Permalinks and click Save Changes.

6. Check the domain and DNS settings

If you’ve recently switched to a new web host or changed your domain or DNS settings, it can take from 24 to 48 hours for the domain to propagate. During this time, your entire website may display 404 error codes or otherwise be inaccessible.

If nothing else is helping, the last thing you can do is check your domain and DNS settings. Generally, you should only try this if you’re comfortable with servers. If you’re having trouble resolving 404 error codes and aren’t sure what to do, contact your web host for assistance.

To check your domain and DNS settings, you’ll first need to make sure your name servers are correct.

• From the Bluehost control panel, click Domains. Make sure the Name Servers point to ns1.Bluehost.com and ns2.Bluehost.com.
• Next, look for DNS irregularities using the DNS Troubleshooting Guide. You can access the DNS Zone Editor in the Bluehost control panel by going to Domains, clicking the Manage drop-down arrow and selecting DNS.

Check your DNS records and look for incorrect name servers and IP addresses. You can use a DNS lookup tool like MxToolbox to ensure everything is in order.

7. Updating internal and external links 

Regularly check and update broken internal and external links to ensure users and search engines reach the right content. Tools like Google Search Console can help identify broken links. 

8. Fixing soft 404 Errors 

Ensure that pages returning soft 404 errors display the correct 404 status code. If a page still exists but is mistakenly returning a 404, update it to return a 200 OK or redirect it to relevant content. 

Final thoughts 

While 404 errors are an unavoidable part of running a website, they don’t have to be harmful. By understanding the causes, impact and solutions for the error, you can improve your site’s user experience and SEO performance. 

Make sure to regularly monitor and fix these errors, using AI tools if necessary, to ensure a seamless experience for your visitors and optimal search engine rankings. 

For a reliable website experience, partner with Bluehost. Our WordPress hosting plans are designed for all budgets and include features like free domain registration for the first year, automatic WordPress updates and one-click SSL activation. All our plans come with a free domain for the first year, as well as automatic WordPress updates. 

Contact us today to learn more about how Bluehost can help support the growth of your website. 

FAQ’s about 404 pages