One of the most common problems website owners have is getting 404 failures. If you see these errors, it means that the page either doesn’t exist anymore or was changed without properly redirecting. If you don’t fix 404 errors, they can make the user experience worse and hurt your SEO results. Rank Math SEO makes it easy to fix 404 mistakes, though.
With Rank Math’s 404 Monitor, this complete guide will show you how to keep an eye on, examine, and fix 404 errors in WordPress. When you’re done with this guide, your website will be well-optimized and have few or no broken links.
What’s Inside the Book
- How to Read 404 Errors
- Why it’s important to fix 404 errors
- Setting up Rank Math to monitor 404 pages
- How to Use the 404 Monitor
- Different Kinds of 404 Errors in Rank Math
- How to Fix 404 Not Found
- How to Use the Search, Filter, and Sort Options
- How to Fix Multiple 404 Errors at Once
- Setting up redirects to happen automatically
- How to Keep 404 Errors from Happening Again
- Questions That Are Often Asked
- In conclusion
1. What 404 Errors Mean
A 404 error happens when the computer can’t find the page that was asked for. These are the main reasons:
- Pages were deleted or changed without being redirected.
- URLs that were typed wrong
- Broken links inside or outside the company
- Changes to the format of permalinks
- Old content with no links to new material
It is important to find and fix these mistakes in order to keep a website healthy.
2. Why it’s important to fix 404 errors
It can cause a number of problems to ignore 404 errors:
- Bad User Experience: If your site has too many failed links, people may leave it.
- Effects on SEO: Google doesn’t like broken links, and having too many 404s can hurt your search results.
- Loss of Traffic: People and search engines that can’t find your pages will not visit them.
- Search engine crawlers may waste time on broken links instead of indexing useful information, which costs money.
Fixing 404 mistakes makes the site easier to use and helps search engines work better.
3. Setting up Rank Math to monitor 404 pages
First, turn on the 404 Monitor feature in Rank Math to start keeping track of 404 errors:
➜ Go to Rank Math SEO → Dashboard → Modules from the WordPress Dashboard.
➜ Find the 404 Monitor feature and turn it on.
Rank Math will start collecting 404 mistakes on your website as soon as it is turned on.
4. How to Use the 404 Monitor
To see the 404 errors:
From the WordPress menu, go to Rank Math SEO → 404 Monitor.
There will be a list of 404 mistakes that were caught.
404 Monitor Has Two Modes
Simple Mode: The 404 error only shows the URL and the time it was clicked on.
Advanced Mode: Shows extra information like the referrer URL, the user agent, and more.
When you switch to Advanced Mode, you can see where mistakes are coming from more clearly.
5. Different Kinds of 404 Flaws in Rank Math
404 mistakes can be broken down into:
- When internal links on your site break, you get an internal 404 error.
- External 404s are errors that happen when other websites link to pages on your site that aren’t there.
- Malicious 404s are errors that happen when bots or spam links try to access pages that don’t exist.
Figuring out these groups helps you pick the right answer.
6. How to Fix 404 Not Found
6.1 Getting rid of the problem’s cause
- When an internal link gives you a 404 error, you need to either fix the link or get rid of it.
- External Links: Make sure the sending site owner knows about the broken link and fixes it.
- When you change a permalink, make sure that old URLs are properly moved.
6.2 Redirecting URLs That Cause Problems
- Use 301 Redirects if you can’t change the source:
- To see the redirections, go to Rank Math SEO.
- To add a new link, click “Add New.”
- In the Source URL box, type in the broken URL.
- That’s where you need to put the right URL.
- Click on 301 Permanent Move.
- Press the “Add” button.
6.3 Ignoring 404 Alerts That Aren’t Important
- Some mistakes don’t need to be fixed, like spammy URLs. Don’t worry about these logs in Rank Math; just delete them.
7. Using the options to search, filter, and sort
Rank Math has useful filtering tools that make it easy to handle a lot of 404 errors:
- Find broken URLs quickly with search.
- You can sort errors by date, hits, or entry time with this filter.
- Sort: Sort mistakes by how often they happen to figure out which ones need to be fixed first.
8. Fixing a lot of 404 errors at once
If you get a lot of 404 errors:
- From the 404 Monitor, you can choose more than one URL.
- Select “Bulk Actions” and then “Redirect/Delete.”
- Press “Apply.”
9. Setting up redirects to happen automatically
Set up auto-redirects to stop future 404s:
- To see the redirections, go to Rank Math SEO.
- If you want to immediately redirect deleted pages, turn on Auto Post Redirects.
- Set up a Fallback Redirect for any 404s that aren’t being handled.
10. How to Keep 404 Errors from Happening Again
To cut down on 404 errors:
- Update internal links often.
- Find crawl problems with Google Search Console.
- To help people, make your own 404 pages.
- Do not delete pages without sending them to the right place.
11. Questions That Are Often Asked
What is the best way to find 404 mistakes in WordPress?
To find dead links, use Google Search Console or Rank Math’s 404 Monitor.
What is the best way to fix a 404 mess?
You can either change the source link or ignore it if it’s not important.
What happens if I don’t pay attention to 404 errors?
The user experience and SEO results of your website may go down.
How can I make all 404 mistakes go to a different page automatically?
With Rank Math’s Fallback Redirect feature, all broken links will be sent to a page that works.
12. Conclusion
It’s important for SEO and user experience to fix 404 problems. Rank Math makes it easy and quick to check for and fix bad links. If you follow this advice, your website will stay optimized and free of mistakes.