What is 404 pages? Everything you should know
What is 404 pages? Everything you should know
As we know that there are many factors that can really affect your ranking on google and your website could be down ranking slowly slowly. If you notice something suspicious in your website make sure to check and improve it instantly before it’s too late. 404 pages is such a type that you should direct to the other pages in time. So today in this article we will talk about 404 pages and many more.

What is 404 pages?

A 404 page is shown in a website when the website cannot find the page that the page user is searching for and this error usually happens when a person clicks on a broken or old link and types the wrong website link or tries to visit a page which has been deleted. The number 404 comes from the code used by website Not Found showing that the website cannot find out what the user is searching.   Most websites show a simple 404 error page with a message like 404 Not Found or Page Not Found. These pages are usually basic and give little information. However many websites make special 404 pages that look very professional in the website and help the user more. The purpose of these professional pages is to help users find what they need even if the original page is deleted by the website admin.

How to check 404 pages

If you want to check the 404 pages of your website you can follow these simple steps to check the 404 pages  
  1. Go to the Google Search console of your website, if you are admin you must create the google console.
 
  1. Next, select the website from the property section at the top left side if you have more than one website, if you have only one website then you do not need to select.
 
  1. Scroll down and in the indexing section you will see Pages click on it.
  1. Next, you will find many different page errors on your website.
 
  1. You see Not found (404), Click on it and you will be able to see all the 404 pages of your website.

Drawbacks of 404 pages

404 pages are a good way for telling people when a page is deleted but they have some problems that can affect both the user of the website and the admin of the website. One big issue is that they make visitors hate your website because users who want information get an error message instead of information. This can create a bad experience and people may leave the site quickly and cause a higher bounce rate. If a website has a lot of 404 errors then it can also lose visitors because users may stop coming back if they keep finding broken links.   A lot of 404 errors can really affect the ranking of a website on search engines. While it is very normal to have some 404 pages and having many can show search engines that the site is not well maintained and making it harder for search engines to find the site in search results. This reduces the chance for new users to find the website and also if a website has too many 404 errors then it can make the site look unreliable which can affect its reputation among the search engine.

Does 404 page error play a negative role in website ranking?

404 page errors really can affect the website ranking if they are not handled in a very good and well way. Some 404 errors are normal but on the other hand having too many 404 pages can show search engines that the website is not well and the website has lots of broken links. This can make it harder for search engines to properly index the site. Also user experience is important for SEO and if visitors always see 404 errors then they may leave the site quickly which increases the bounce rate. A high bounce rate tells search engines that users are not engaging well with the site because the content on the website is not informational.

Conclusion

In the end, it is normal for a website to have 404  pages but make sure that your website does not create a lot of the 404 pages because it could be very dangerous for your website and your website may drop the ranking and start listing your keywords from the google search engine. Keep watching your website from time to time in order to make your website well maintained and ranked.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *