How to Avoid Large Number of 404 Errors?

10 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Hi,

I am newbie to this board. Hope I will learn more here.

I have a question on 404 Page not found errors.

I am doing SEO for a site. The site was redesigned few months back.

After redesigning I have implemented On page SEO factors properly & started building links. Few days back I figured out unwanted URLs in Google while searching for site index.

I have furnished few URLs,
After analyzing, I found there is no issues in our site. I have contacted my Hosting service provider and asked to fix this issues. Now that URLs are showing 404 Page Not Found.

In my Google Webmaster Tools, the 404 Errors increased to 2,238 and also found the increase in website traffic through these links. I need to reduce the error count.

Anyone could suggest a better solution for this?

Thanks.
#404 #404 error pages #avoid #errors #google webmaster tools #large #number #seo
  • Profile picture of the author Chetna271
    According to me if there are 404 error, either you can delete them or redirect them to the new URL.
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  • Profile picture of the author Patho
    Download the WordPress Plugin called:

    Link Juice Keeper or 404 Redirection..

    This redirects all non-existing URLS to the homepage...
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    • Profile picture of the author jamie78john
      Originally Posted by Patho View Post

      Download the WordPress Plugin called:

      Link Juice Keeper or 404 Redirection..

      This redirects all non-existing URLS to the homepage...
      Better don't might get you penalty. Just let it be and it will eventually go deindexed, if you so anxious to fix it, then check your server log file for 404 errors, and redirect all 404's at some not important page or make them 410 - just my 5cents.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bared
      Originally Posted by Patho View Post

      Download the WordPress Plugin called:

      Link Juice Keeper or 404 Redirection..

      This redirects all non-existing URLS to the homepage...
      Thank so much for this. I always get this trouble. Now I can resolve it. Thanks again!
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Never leave a URL as a 404 page, your wasting traffic & any links pointing at the 404 URL.

    The whole idea of a 404 is one of the worst things ever invented for the web.
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  • Profile picture of the author onconference
    404 error usually means site is blocked for service or your browser is playing up, try another browser but make sure you have one browser set as a dedicated default to avoid confusion deny the other(s), in preferences you can mark sites as safe, using http://www format. You can get the dos c prompt open you can try "pinging" the site.( C:\ ping siteURL) no brackets, you should get a reply in milli seconds?
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  • Profile picture of the author arkinfotec
    Thank you all for your suggestions...
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  • Profile picture of the author Clint Butler
    I turned my 404 pages into a lead generation opportunity by adding an opt-in to the page that is delivered for all 404 messages.

    Doing this makes use of the traffic that is coming in, and Google doesn't particularly penalize a site for having them.

    Webmaster Tools reports them because they could be an indication that something is wrong with your site and every website in one way or another will return a 404 page even its something the user did when they typed in your URL wrong.
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  • Profile picture of the author indiadesign
    The increasing number of error 404 is an alarming situation as it will mar your search engine rankings. First, you find out how these error 404 are occurring. If it was because of the redesigning and resulted page renaming, you should redirect all those error urls to correct pages. Google webmaster tools will list such URLs frequently and you can fix upon getting. But precaution should be taken while you redesigned your site. Broken links or page not found is a major mistake in the eyes of Google.
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  • Profile picture of the author Patho
    Download the plugin called ---> Link Juice Keeper

    It will redirects every 404 page to the homepage...
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