The 404 error is one of the most common on websites. Find out what causes it and how to resolve it quickly.

Let those who cast the first stone never come across the “Error 404 — Page not found” message when browsing the internet. It’s frustrating, isn’t it? The HTTP 404 status code is one of the most common and appears when a certain page is not available on the server or even when the request made by the user fails.
In this article, we will explore, in deep detail, what Error 404 is and the main reasons why it appears. Furthermore, we will demonstrate practical solutions for resolving the error, enhancing visitors’ navigation experience, and promoting accessibility.
By understanding Error 404 and knowing how to deal with it, you can considerably improve the usability of your pages. Believe me, the following content will be very useful. Therefore, we advise you to read it completely and apply the suggestions indicated.
Read More: How to make your Website appear on Google
What is error 404?
When the server cannot locate the page the user tries to access, it issues the 404 error as an HTTP status code.
If, for any reason, the server cannot locate the requested page—either due to its nonexistence or a modified address—it will send the 404 error code to the user’s browser.
Commonly, this error message appears on the screen, stating ‘Page not found’ or ‘Page not found,’ depending on your theme. Some websites also tailor the content of the 404 page to create a more user-friendly experience and prevent it from negatively affecting users. We will show examples throughout the article.
What are the common causes of the page not found error?
There are situations that commonly generate the 404 error, we will deal with them below:
Incorrect URL typing by the user
User-generated typing errors in the URL can result in a 404 error because, when the user enters the address incorrectly, the server cannot identify the correct page unless a redirect is specified.
For example, suppose a user wants to visit the iPhone section of a fictitious store called “searchgnomes.com”. Instead of typing the address “searchgnomes.com/iphone”, they, unintentionally, typed “ searchgnomes.com/iphon” (forgetting the “e” in the word iPhone).
The server, upon receiving this request, will not find the page and will therefore return the 404 error code.
Broken links
Broken (leading nowhere) or outdated links result in a 404 error because they direct to pages that no longer exist or that have been moved to another location on the site.
When a user clicks on a broken or outdated link, the server produces the error message because it cannot locate the page matching the link’s URL.
For example, imagine that you have a soap store and, among the products, you have a lavender soap at the address “searchgnomes.com/lavanda/“.
However, you saw that this specific scent was not selling as much and stopped from producing, focusing on other products. Because of this, it deleted the lavender page, but a link to it still remained on the main menu.
Whenever a user clicks on the lavender link, the system generates a 404 error message because the product page no longer exists.
Changes to the page permalink without creating proper redirects
Often, for some reason, there is a need to change the page’s permalink. When you do this, accessing the old link will display the ‘page not found’ error.
The simplest solution, in this case, is to create a redirect from the old URL to the new one, ensuring that it will be available to the user, even if they have accessed the previous link. You can achieve this through WordPress plugins or by configuring settings in your .htaccess file.
How is the 404 error different from other HTTP status codes?
HTTP status codes indicate the result of a request made by the browser to the web server. Each code has a different meaning. To get a clear idea of this, we will highlight the most common codes and what each one represents:
- Error 404 (Not Found): This signifies that the server couldn’t locate the page at that particular address.
- Code 200 (OK): This indicates that the request was successful, and the server located and returned the requested content, displaying the website to the visitor.
- Code 301 (Moved Permanently): This signifies that the page has been permanently moved to a new URL.
- Code 403 (Forbidden): shows that access to the page was prohibited by the server. This happens when the user does not have permission to access a certain page. This happens when a non-logged-in user tries to access part of the WordPress administrative area, for example.
- Code 500 (Internal Server Error): This error message signifies that something hindered the processing of the request.
What is a 404 error page?
A 404 error page is a dedicated page created to handle the ‘page not found’ error. When encountering this error, the server has two options: display the error message itself or present a personalized 404 error page (if available).
Most WordPress themes and websites have such a page because they have already created it, in case the server requests it.
The Importance of a Custom 404 Error Page
Having a 404 error page is important because it is responsible for alleviating the error for the user, telling them what happened and what can be done. To get an idea of the importance of this error page, we will now show the standard message from a web server:

What is the impact of the page not found error on your website’s SEO?
404 errors do not cause that much of a problem in relation to the SEO of your website, as long as the errors are not constant. After all, Google expects this type of error to appear minimally on your site.
However, among the possible impacts, we list the most relevant ones below:
- Loss of authority and traffic: When Google finds many non-existent pages, it can affect its perception of content quality. This way, the search engine can reduce your website’s overall ranking for that specific page and drive less traffic.
- Broken links: This type of link results in a negative experience for users, which can lead to a decrease in trust in your links, but only if they are extremely excessive.
- Inadequate indexing: pages not found are normally crawled by Google, causing inadequate indexing of your content.
- Poor usability and user experience: 404 pages can lead to a poor user experience, causing users to leave your site quickly (this increases the bounce rate and can cause Google to “fly the flags” for your site).
What to do if you are seeing the 404 error frequently?
If you are seeing the Page Not Found page frequently, initially, if you have WordPress or another CMS installed, check whether the error is due to plugin incompatibility, especially redirection plugins. This is a common situation when users have multiple extensions from this category installed simultaneously.
If not, it may have been due to link structure changes. In this case, the ideal is to identify the pages that have the error and direct them correctly to each one.
It is important to remember that this 404 error correction is essential both to improve the user experience and to have better search rankings for keywords in your niche, as search engines interpret an excess of 404 errors as low quality. site.
Therefore, it is interesting to take care to resolve this situation as soon as possible.
How to redirect the 404 error to a valid page for the user?
To redirect the page with a 404 error to a valid one, the quickest solution is via plugins like Redirection.
To use it, it is very simple. First, we recommend making a backup copy.
- Go to Tools → Redirection in the WordPress side menu. After clicking on the link, the plugin presentation screen will appear, where you should select the ‘Automatic redirection’ option.
- Then, check the two boxes “ Monitor changes to permalinks on WordPress posts and pages ” and “ Keep a record of all redirects and 404 errors ”.
- In the REST API section, click on “ Finish configuration ”.
- To enter the redirect, enter the source URL (of the old page) and then the destination URL (the page the redirect will ultimately take). Lastly, click on the “ Add redirect ” button.
Conclusion
In today’s article, we explore in detail the meaning of Error 404 (page not found) and also talk about the importance of resolving it to help ensure a good user experience when browsing your website.
Read Also: Google Algorithm: What, How, and Why You Need to Know