QUESTION: How to Automatically Redirect All Existing and Future 404 Errors?

9 replies
Hi Warriors,

I've lost my previous WordPress database and recently moved to a new server. Now there are lots of 404 errors coming from both non-human (search engine spiders etc.) and human traffic. And these errors are consuming my server's GPU/CPU. Moreover, my search engine ranking has been dropped because of these error pages.

Any experts here know how to automatically and permanently redirect all existing and future 404 errors to my blog's homepage using 301 redirection?

Your answers and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.
#404 #automatically #blog #errors #existing #future #question #redirect #redirection #seo #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
    Go here:
    Htaccess Mod Rewrite Examples, 301 Redirects, Dynamic URL Rewrites

    Scroll down to: (almost to bottom of page)
    Custom Error Page (404)

    You'll see a button to download the code...
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  • Profile picture of the author terrapurus
    Originally Posted by imkevintan View Post

    Hi Warriors,

    Any experts here know how to automatically and permanently redirect all existing and future 404 errors to my blog's homepage using 301 redirection?
    If your site is not that important to you, the link given by imkevintan will work fine.

    If the site is important to you, go into your Google webmaster account and grab the URL's you are getting 404's for. Create content for them and publish them. This is the only way to retain 100% of the link juice pointing to those pages.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kurt
      Originally Posted by terrapurus View Post

      If your site is not that important to you, the link given by imkevintan will work fine.

      If the site is important to you, go into your Google webmaster account and grab the URL's you are getting 404's for. Create content for them and publish them. This is the only way to retain 100% of the link juice pointing to those pages.
      This is good advice, but I would recommend getting the 404 redirect done first, then check your logs and using the 80/20 rule, put something up for the pages getting the most traffic.


      Hi Kevin,

      Try using the Way Back Machine for your domain:
      Internet Archive: Wayback Machine

      ...And see what content/pages they may have archived from your site.
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    • Profile picture of the author imkevintan
      Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

      Go here:
      Htaccess Mod Rewrite Examples, 301 Redirects, Dynamic URL Rewrites

      Scroll down to: (almost to bottom of page)
      Custom Error Page (404)

      You'll see a button to download the code...
      Thanks Kurt. I've tried the code but it doesn't automatically redirect me from a non-existing page to my index.php I don't know what's wrong.

      This is the code I tried: ErrorDocument 404 /index.php

      I think that code simply creates a 404 error page (which I already have and is handled by WordPress) for the search engines. I could be wrong though.

      Originally Posted by terrapurus View Post

      If your site is not that important to you, the link given by imkevintan will work fine.

      If the site is important to you, go into your Google webmaster account and grab the URL's you are getting 404's for. Create content for them and publish them. This is the only way to retain 100% of the link juice pointing to those pages.
      I've already removed all my 404 URLs from my Google Webmaster Tools account but I'm still getting human traffic from other blogs which I've left comments and built links on. It was the main reason that my GPU usage went overage on my Media Temple's server earlier.

      The only way to completely resolve this is to automatically redirect all existing and future 404s to my homepage (index.php).
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      • Profile picture of the author imkevintan
        Hi Kurt,

        Thanks for your suggestion on using Wayback Machine! Unfortunately I find no entries in the search result page hehe.

        Kevin
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        • Profile picture of the author Simon Royal
          This is the same issue I am having, my site went down for a bit and I got it back up but there are alot of 404's.

          Is there a way I can fix this or pay someone a few bucks to do it for me?
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          • Profile picture of the author imkevintan
            Originally Posted by Simon Royal View Post

            This is the same issue I am having, my site went down for a bit and I got it back up but there are alot of 404's.

            Is there a way I can fix this or pay someone a few bucks to do it for me?
            I believe we can hire an SEO expert or server admin to fix this but I'm not sure how much their charging for this. I think they might be charging by hour.
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            • Profile picture of the author Kurt
              Originally Posted by imkevintan View Post

              I believe we can hire an SEO expert or server admin to fix this but I'm not sure how much their charging for this. I think they might be charging by hour.
              You need a server admin. I know SEO.

              It's a pretty straight forward job for someone that knows what they are doing.

              Contact your hosting support and see if they can/will do it for you. If not, see if they can suggest someone. But tell them it's urgent.
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              • Profile picture of the author imkevintan
                Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

                You need a server admin. I know SEO.

                It's a pretty straight forward job for someone that knows what they are doing.

                Contact your hosting support and see if they can/will do it for you. If not, see if they can suggest someone. But tell them it's urgent.
                Thanks for link above in your #2 reply. I'm using the simple 301 redirection method in my .htaccess file and it's working perfectly.
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