Online, every website owner knows every second counts, and every good user experience can turn into a return visit or a sale. But what happens when a visitor clicks a link to your site, whether from Google or a social media post, and gets an annoying message that says “404 error” or “Page not found”?
This error isn’t just a number or a routine glitch; it’s a clear sign of a problem with your links or content, and the problem may be bigger than you think. A visitor who hits a 404 page usually won’t come back to your site; they’ll leave for another one.
If these errors pile up, they can also weaken your site’s search rankings and reduce Google’s and visitors’ trust in your site. Whether you run a small blog or an online store, knowing how to deal with 404 errors is essential for keeping your site high quality, improving the user experience and making your SEO strategy effective.
In this article, you’ll learn in detail what a 404 error is, what causes it, how it affects your site and the best ways to fix it and improve the user experience.
What Is a 404 Error?
A 404 error is an HTTP status code sent from the server to the browser. It means the page the visitor is trying to reach doesn’t exist on the site.
Simply put, the server is working and the site is working, but the requested link doesn’t exist or was changed without updating the other links that point to it.
It usually happens because a URL was typed incorrectly, such as kemetova.services.com instead of kemetova.com/services, or because of a typo in internal or external links. It can also appear if a page was deleted without redirecting users to a new address or to the homepage.
This error doesn’t mean there’s a problem with the server itself; it simply means the page doesn’t exist at the address entered. It appears in different forms, such as:
- “404 Not Found”.
- “Error 404”.
- “HTTP 404”.
- “The requested page could not be found” or “Page not found.”
Repeated 404 errors, or ignoring them, hurt your SEO, because they signal problems with your links or URLs. You can fix these problems with redirects, by changing settings in files such as .htaccess, through the WordPress dashboard, by adjusting DNS settings, or by reviewing code in languages such as PHP, HTML or JavaScript.
What Causes 404 Errors?
Several things can cause 404 errors, usually related to problems with URLs or links, whether on your site or elsewhere. The most common causes are:
- Deleting or moving a page without a redirect
When you remove a page from your site or change its URL without setting up a redirect, visitors get a 404 error.
- Broken links on your site or from other sites
Broken links, whether on your site or from external sites, are one of the main causes of 404 errors. They point to pages that were deleted or moved without the link being updated.
- Typos in links
Sometimes a visitor, or even you, adds a link with a typo, so the server can’t find the page, and a 404 error appears.
- Problems with the .htaccess file or settings
In some cases, mistakes in your .htaccess file or DNS settings can cause 404 errors, especially after changing your URL structure or web server settings.
- Problems in your site’s code
Sometimes errors in your site’s code (PHP, JavaScript or HTML) load the wrong pages or create links to pages that don’t exist, which causes 404 errors.
How Do 404 Errors Affect Your Website?
Frequent 404 errors don’t just hurt visitors; they can also hurt your search rankings and your conversion rate.
They give the impression that your site is out of date or unreliable, which pushes users to look for other sites, and they weaken search engines’ trust in the quality of your content and links. Here’s how 404 errors affect your site:
1. The user experience
Repeated “page not found” errors frustrate visitors and can make them leave your site for another one. Learn how to improve the user experience on your website.
2. Your search rankings
Broken links that take visitors to 404 pages are a negative signal for Google, which can hurt your site’s chances of appearing at the top of search results.
3. Lost potential customers
If a visitor reaches a product or service page that doesn’t exist, there’s a good chance they won’t complete a purchase.
That’s why you need to deal with any 404 page quickly, whether with a redirect, a corrected link or updated content, to keep the user experience smooth and protect your visitors and your search rankings.
Read also: what schema markup is and why it matters for your site’s SEO.
How to Find 404 Errors on Your Site
To deal with 404 errors properly, you first need to find them, using dedicated tools that track URLs returning a 404 status and find broken links, whether on your own site or pointing to it from other sites.
The most important tools for finding and tracking 404 errors include:
Google Search Console
One of the most important, essential tools for managing any website. It lets you:
- Find pages that return 404 errors, with details of the links.
- See which requested page didn’t load.
- Check which URL is causing the 404 error.
- Work out whether the problem is a typo in the address or a fault in internal or external links.
Link checking tools (Screaming Frog SEO Spider)
This tool crawls your site the way search engines do and finds every broken link, internal or external. It also lets you export a full list of affected URLs and update them directly.
Other outside tools
- Ahrefs: lets you check external links pointing to pages that don’t exist on your site.
- Semrush: gives your site detailed reports on broken links and other problems that could affect your SEO.
- Dead Link Checker: a free, easy tool for checking links manually and making sure they work.
- Server logs: in advanced cases, you can check them to analyze failed requests and find the cause of the error.
Tracking and finding these errors regularly helps you keep your site’s structure organized, improve the visitor experience and avoid sudden 404 pages.
A 404 error isn’t just an annoying message; it’s a sign of a problem with the links or content on your site. If you don’t deal with it, your site can lose lots of visitors and slip in search rankings.
Keeping 404 errors under control means keeping the user experience excellent, protecting your Google rankings and increasing your chances of turning visitors into loyal customers.
If you have a website and you’ve noticed 404 errors on some pages or links, and your site needs maintenance, get in touch with the Kemetova team. We offer professional website maintenance with website specialists, along with other services such as website design, SEO, web hosting and domain registration for your brand name, with many ways to pay in Egyptian pounds.