A 404 means the server is reachable but can't find the specific page. It could be deleted, moved without a redirect, mistyped, or a CMS routing issue. Paste the URL to find out which.
| Cause | Fix |
|---|---|
| Page deleted | Add a 301 redirect to the nearest relevant page |
| URL changed, no redirect | Add 301 from old URL to new URL immediately |
| Typo in the URL | Check capitalisation, hyphens vs underscores, trailing slashes |
| CMS slug changed | WordPress/Shopify etc — restore old slug or add redirect plugin |
| Bad .htaccess rewrite | A misconfigured rewrite rule is eating valid URLs |
| Case sensitivity | Linux servers are case-sensitive — /Page ≠ /page |
| File not uploaded | Deploy issue — file exists locally but not on server |
A soft 404 is when a server returns HTTP 200 (OK) but the page content says "not found" or is empty. Google sees a 200 and indexes the useless page — hurting your SEO.
WordPress "page not found" templates that return 200, Shopify collection pages with no products, search results pages with no results.
Ensure your CMS or framework returns a real HTTP 404 status code on missing pages. LinkAutopsy shows you the actual HTTP status vs what the page says.
Every day a 404 exists without a redirect, you lose the link equity that URL had built. A 301 passes ~90% of that equity to the destination.
Coverage > Excluded > Not found (404). Shows every 404 Google has crawled on your site. Fix the ones with inbound links first.
A good 404 page offers search, popular links, and a way home. It doesn't lose the visitor. A blank "not found" page does.
A 404 on a page with no inbound links or traffic is harmless. A 404 on a page with backlinks or that used to rank — that's a real SEO problem. Fix those with 301 redirects.
Google Search Console, Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs), or your server access logs filtered for 404 status codes.
No. A 404 means the server is running fine — it just can't find that specific page. If the whole site is down, you'd get a 5xx error or a connection failure.