How To Fix A 404 Error?

You may click more than one occasion on a link and instead of finding the desired content, you have displayed a 404 error. Thus, it is important to know what implications this failure has on your website and how you can solve it.

What Is a 404 error?

This error is the most common failure that we can experience when browsing a website. Occurs when the user has been able to access the page’s server but the requested resource was not found. In this way, when a 404 page appears, it warns us that the URL that the individual wishes to visit does not exist. This is mainly because after making certain modifications to our website, we have eliminated the page to which that link was directed, we have modified the composition of the URL, or the user has not entered the correct values.

How To Fix A 404 Error?

For solving a 404 error we have several alternatives depending on the cause that led to the failure. Thus, when the URL has been removed and the content that was in it has ceased to exist, it is advisable to tell Google not to reset or index it again.

We can easily do the process through Google Search Console. On the other hand, if we have modified the URL but want to keep the information that was in it, what is advised is to perform a 301 redirect, so that when the user accesses the modified link, they will be sent to the new URL that it has been created.

How Can This Error Affect My Website?

Having a negative aspect of 404 errors is that it can influence the positioning of our website, having negative consequences on the results of the company and the development of the business in the online environment. In the first place, search engines will penalize those web pages that have abundant 404 errors since they understand that the existence of these errors is derived from inadequate maintenance of the site. 

By losing positions among the search results, our website will stop receiving many visits, the visibility of our brand will decline and the sales made will be harmed. In the same way, 404 errors affect the user experience, causing discomfort by not being able to access the desired content.

Why Customize The 404 Page?

Customizing our 404 page will ensure that we retain the Internet user on our website despite not having been able to access the desired page. To do this, we are going to make sure that when a 404 error appears, we indicate to the user that this section is no longer available, but that they can find similar information on other pages of our site, providing the links that they can visit to do so.

Through this measure, we achieve that the user is satisfied until the error can be solved. As has been observed throughout the article, users will feel frustrated if when trying to access a section of your website they receive a 404 error, being important to know how to detect this problem and, above all, to know the mechanisms to solve it.