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404 SEO

A 404 HTTP status code tells browsers and search engines that a requested URL could not be found on the server.

If you have ever worried about every 404 on your site, you already know that most are harmless and only a few need action.

Key points

  • Use a 301 redirect when content has moved to a new URL instead of leaving a 404.
  • Following SEO 404 page best practices, do not redirect all 404s to the homepage; send users to the most relevant replacement page.
  • Let obsolete URLs with no value return 404 or 410 rather than creating fake content.
  • Audit broken internal links and outdated sitemap URLs after deleting or moving pages.

Discontinued products and the 404s they leave behind

A site with 1,500 product pages deletes 200 discontinued items. Three months later, Google Search Console shows 404 errors for those URLs. The sitemap still lists them, and twelve external sites link to five of the deleted pages. The internal links from category pages also point to dead URLs. The fix: 301 redirect the five with backlinks to similar products, update the sitemap, and leave the rest as 404s. The custom 404 page includes a search bar and popular categories. For missing images, the same principle applies: image SEO best practices recommend using 301 redirects for images with backlinks.

Three situations where a 404 needs action

  • Page has backlinks If a deleted page has external links, return a 301 to the closest relevant page to preserve link equity and avoid losing traffic.
  • Listed in sitemap A URL that appears in your XML sitemap should not return 404. Remove it from the sitemap or redirect it to a working page.
  • Broken internal link When a user-facing link on your own site leads to a 404, fix the link or redirect the target URL to prevent user frustration.

Three common mistakes to avoid

  • Redirecting every 404 to homepage This confuses users and search engines, as the homepage often has no relation to the missing content. Use relevant redirects instead.
  • Blocking 404s with robots.txt Do not block 404 URLs via robots.txt. Search engines need to see the status code to understand the page is gone.
  • Creating fake replacement content Instead of a 404, some sites serve a thin page with keywords. This is seen as a soft 404 and can harm indexing.

Common questions

Are 404 errors bad for SEO?

Most 404 errors are harmless. Only those on important URLs with backlinks or in sitemaps need fixing.

What to do with 404 pages?

If content moved, use a 301 redirect. If permanently removed, let it stay 404 or 410. Create a custom 404 page to help users navigate.

Sources

  1. Google Search Console Help: 404 (Page Not Found) errors Official guidance on when 404s matter and how to handle them.
  2. Google Search Central Covers HTTP status codes and their effect on crawling and indexing.
  3. RFC 9110 Defines the HTTP 404 status code and its semantics.
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