Do 404 errors hurt SEO?

Not by themselves. Google treats 404s as a normal part of the web and does not lower your whole site for them. The harm comes when pages with traffic or links start returning 404, because you lose those visits and that value. Redirect those pages.

A soft 404 is a page that says 'not found' to visitors but returns status 200 (OK) to search engines. Google Search Console reports these as 'Soft 404'. Fix it by making your error page return a real 404 status code.

Should I redirect all 404 pages to the homepage?

No. Redirect each moved page to its closest equivalent with a 301. Sending everything to the homepage confuses visitors and is often treated like a soft 404. Pages that are gone for good can simply stay a 404 or 410.

Why do all my WordPress posts show 404 but the homepage works?

This is usually a permalink or rewrite-rule problem, often after a migration or update. Go to Settings, then Permalinks, and click Save to rebuild the rules. If it persists, check the .htaccess file, after taking a backup.

Errors

404 Error on Your Website: Meaning and How to Fix

Q: What does a 404 error mean?

A 404 error means the server is online but cannot find a page at the requested address. The page may have been deleted, moved or renamed, or the link may contain a typo. The rest of the website usually keeps working normally.

What does a 404 error mean, why does it appear and does it hurt SEO? Learn how to find and fix 404 pages with 301 redirects.

By IT bugsolutions
Updated October 23, 2026
6 min read

A 404 error means the server is working, but it cannot find the page at the address that was requested. The page was deleted, moved, renamed or never existed, or the link contains a typo. A few 404s are normal. Fix the ones that hit pages people still look for by redirecting them with a 301 to the best matching page.

Key takeaways

404 means "page not found". The site itself is still up.
Typical causes: deleted or renamed pages, changed URLs, broken permalinks and old links elsewhere.
Redirect pages that moved with a 301. Leave truly gone pages as 404 or 410.
Your custom 404 page must really return a 404 status, otherwise Google sees a "soft 404".

What does a 404 error mean?

When you open a web address, your browser asks the server for that exact page. If the server answers "I have nothing at that address", you get a 404 Not Found. The server is online and responds correctly. It just has no page there.

404page not found

301moved permanently

410gone on purpose

That makes a 404 different from a 500 or a site that is down. With a 404 the site works, one address does not.

Why do 404 errors appear on your website?

Almost every 404 has one of these causes:

A page was deleted and nothing replaced it.
A URL changed. You renamed a page or product, or moved a category, and the old address stopped working.
Permalinks broke. On WordPress, after a migration or update, all posts can suddenly 404 while the homepage works.
An old link exists elsewhere. Another site, a newsletter, social post or your own menu still points to the old address.
A typo. Someone mistyped the address or a link in a post.
A redesign or migration changed the URL structure without redirects.

A scene you may recognise

You relaunch your site with a new design. The service page "/diensten" is now "/services". Google still shows the old address, and a client's email signature links to it. Every click ends on a 404, and nobody tells you.

Do 404 errors hurt your SEO?

A normal 404 on a page that no longer exists is not a penalty. Google has said that 404 pages are a natural part of the web, and they do not lower the ranking of the rest of your site.

The damage comes from where the 404s are. If a page that had good links or steady traffic starts to 404, you lose that traffic and the value of those links. Visitors also leave. So the focus is not "zero 404s" but "no 404s on pages that matter".

Soft 404: the common trap

A soft 404 happens when your "page not found" page returns status 200 (OK) instead of 404. Google Search Console flags this as "Soft 404". Your custom 404 page must send a real 404 status.

How do you find 404 errors on your site?

Google Search Console. The Pages report lists URLs as "Not found (404)". Check which of them still have links or visitors.
Analytics. Look for visits to pages titled "Page not found" or similar.
A crawler. Free and paid crawling tools scan your site and list broken internal links.
Server logs. They show every request that returned 404, including from old external links.
Click your own menu. It sounds basic, but menus often hold dead links after edits.

Every page request travels through a chain. A fault at any link shows up as an error.

How do you fix a 404 error?

The right fix depends on what happened to the page. Decide per URL.

Situation	What to do	Status
Page moved or renamed	Redirect old URL to new URL	301
Page replaced by a similar one	Redirect to the closest match	301
Page removed on purpose, no equivalent	Leave it, with a helpful 404 page	404 or 410
Broken link on your own site	Correct the link	200
All posts 404, homepage works	Re-save permalinks (WordPress)	200

On WordPress, the permalink problem has a quick first aid: go to Settings, then Permalinks, and click Save without changing anything. This rebuilds the rewrite rules. Take a backup first if you also edited .htaccess.

Do not redirect everything to the homepage

Sending every dead URL to the homepage confuses visitors, and Google often treats it like a soft 404. Redirect to the page that really replaces the old one.

What makes a good custom 404 page?

People who land on a 404 are not lost for good. Give them a way out.

Don't

Show a bare "Not found".
Return status 200 on the error page.
Auto-redirect every miss to the homepage.

Do

Say plainly that the page was not found.
Add search, your menu and links to key pages.
Return a real 404 status.

When is a 404 a bigger problem?

If many pages 404 at once, something larger happened. A migration, a changed domain setup, a wrong rewrite rule or a faulty redirect chain can all do it. You may also see redirect loops; our guide to too many redirects covers that. If it began right after an update, see site broken after update.

How do you set up a 301 redirect without breaking things?

A 301 redirect tells browsers and search engines that a page moved for good, and where to. You can set it up with a redirect plugin on WordPress, in your framework's routing, or in the server configuration. All three do the same job.

List the old URLs that still get visits or links.
Match each one to the most relevant new page.
Add the redirects, one rule per old URL.
Open each old address and check that it lands on the right page.
Avoid chains: old to middle to new. Point the old URL straight at the final page.

If you add rules to .htaccess, copy the file first. One misplaced character in that file can take the whole site down with a 500 error.

How do you prevent 404s in the future?

Never change a URL without adding a redirect in the same step.
Check your Search Console "Not found" list once a month.
Update internal links when you rename pages, instead of relying on redirects.
Crawl your site before and after every redesign or migration.
Keep a list of old URLs when you move to a new platform.

How can IT bugsolutions help?

We fix broken links, redirects and permalink problems on WordPress, Laravel/PHP sites and web shops, remotely. The diagnosis is free. We list the 404s that matter, quote a fixed price in advance (from €295 excl. VAT), take a backup before any change and you pay only after the diagnosis.

Planning a redesign or move? See our website migration help or contact us before you launch, so redirects are in place from day one. A care plan adds uptime checks and safe updates, which catches many of these problems early.

Frequently asked questions

Also see