Introduction

If your website is losing traffic or not ranking well, one hidden reason could be 404 errors. These errors occur when a page no longer exists or the URL is incorrect.

Using Google Search Console, you can easily find and fix these issues to improve your SEO performance and indexing.

What is a 404 Error?

A 404 error (Not Found) means the page URL exists but the content is missing.
Example: https://yourwebsite.com/old-page

Why 404 Errors Are Bad for SEO

– Waste Google’s crawl budget
– Slow down indexing
– Create poor user experience
– Reduce rankings over time

How to Find 404 Errors

1. Login to Google Search Console
2. Go to Indexing → Pages
3. Click on “Not found (404)”
4. Export the list of URLs

Types of 404 Errors

1. Deleted Pages
2. Broken Internal Links
3. Spam or Random URLs

How to Fix 404 Errors

1. Redirect Deleted Pages using plugins like Redirection
2. Fix broken links using Screaming Frog
3. Ignore or block spam URLs
4. Use 410 status for permanently removed pages

Validate Fix

After fixing, go back to Google Search Console and click ‘Validate Fix’.

Tips to Prevent 404 Errors

– Always redirect deleted pages
– Avoid changing URLs frequently
– Fix internal links regularly
– Keep sitemap updated

Conclusion

Fixing 404 errors helps improve crawl efficiency, indexing, and SEO rankings.