Found the “Not Found” 404 Error? Fix it!

​Error 404

SEO is almost like a measure of how well you know your website and how much quality it provides to users. It helps any business that wants to get more traffic and have people staying longer on their page achieve just that. But did you know that the looming threat of a 404-error can seriously affect your business?

A 404-error is a client-based error where viewers use all this effort in finding your page and clicking on links, only to be met by the dreaded 'Webpage not found' message. This happens when the page that the user is looking for doesn't existence or it cannot be retrieved.

Other ways to say 404 Error

The 404 error is usually not that identifiable, and is visible when a customer or search engine clicks the desired link. It's fully customisable by the owner and you can recognise by any of these words:

▪404 Error

▪404 Not Found

▪The requested URL (URL) was not found on this server

▪404 Oops it looks like a ghost

▪HTTP 404 Not Found

And it happens because...

• The brand no longer sells or operates on the product and has thus brought down the page. The 404 error appears because the owner didn't redirect the page to some other link.
• The business has deleted the entire webpage to eliminate the context.
• The website is temporarily down or under maintenance.
• The requested file may have been renamed or named incorrectly.

Check errors

As tedious as it sounds, to avoid crashes and breaks it's necessary that you regularly check links. To keep on top of this, it's good to set a routine check every 90 days so that you don't miss out on any errors in the future. By keeping this routine in place, you can ensure that your website is being checked on regularly so that no minor mistakes are seriously impacting your business.

Consequences

Now as an SEO company, we can agree with Google when they say that 404-error does no harm to your ranking. However, we can also say that these types of errors on a website can negatively impact your branding. As search engine users ourselves, we know that we don't like getting 404 errors, and we're sure that other users and potential visitors of your website won't be happy with them either.

How can we solve it?

While visitors can refresh the page, clear cache, recheck the URL and use it with Google or Bing to resolve the 404 issues, business owners can:

➢ You can jump to the Webmaster tool's dashboard and then open the Crawl tab, where you can find Crawl Errors. Here under the "Crawl Error" section you can see for 'server error' and 'Not Found error'. You can stop these URLs by using appropriate actions.

➢ If the error is on WordPress, then download free plugin known as Quick Redirects. It is a permanent option to send your 404 URLs to a new destination.

➢ Redirection is one of the best solutions among the SEO services provided by our team in Melbourne. Most times businesses forget to redirect deleted pages to another link, which can devalue their market position. This is why we love 301 redirection - the perfect solution to your 404 error problems. Also, because Google incorporates the older link's value with the new link, it gets the same value to your customers with little effort.

➢ Now, if a page makes no sense on your website and you want to delete it, it's best to pull it off the website. If it's adding no value and has no relevance There is no point in keeping it there just to drive a few more views.

➢ At times, when 404 pages are not tracked through any tool, be prepared for those types of situations using customised pages. For instance, if a flight booking website has 404 page errors, it can customise the entire page by displaying the booking menu on one side and "Oops page not found" on another. These extra details and enquiry features will allow users to reach you instantly even when the page is not supporting.

​