404 errors: are they bad for SEO
LightSEO · Technical SEO
404 errors: are they bad for SEO
Having 404 pages is normal for any website. They become a problem when there are many of them and your own links point to them.
0
harm from occasional 404s
1
well-designed error page
301
for URLs with traffic
Normal
When a 404 is no problem
A product has been removed for good and has no replacement. A 404 is the correct response. The search engine will drop the page from its index over time.
Someone mistyped the address. Random requests to non-existent pages always happen.
Old URLs from other sites' links. You can't control how others link to you.
Problem
When you need to act
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Internal links to 404s
A menu, banner or text leads nowhere – this hurts both the user experience and the crawling of the site.
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404s on pages with traffic
The page had rankings and visitors – here you need a redirect to a similar page.
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A sudden spike
Thousands of errors appearing suddenly signal a broken structure or a failed update.
The minimum
What you must do
Design a proper 404 page. Search, links to popular categories, contacts – in place of a blank screen with an error code.
Check the report in Search Console. Once a month is enough to spot a spike in time.
Don't redirect everything to the home page. This only turns a 404 into a soft 404.
Lots of 404 errors in Search Console?
We'll sort out which of them deserve attention and set up redirects for pages with traffic.
