Understanding the 404 Error and Why They Happen

There are a lot of reasons why URLs cannot be found by the server. The 404 error pages are the result when a server cannot access the desired URL requested by the client. If you are a regular internet buff, you definitely would have come across the phrase "Not Found. The requested URL /xyz.htm was not found on this server," a few times. This has changed over time.

A 404 error can occur in the following situations:

If a page has been moved:

Usually, when you decide to transfer your domain you direct the old URLs to the new site with a 301-redirect. However, if you happen to forget redirecting the URLs, this leads to an error message in the form of a Status Code 404.

URL restructuring:

There are a number of reasons why URLs change. For example, renaming of a directory can make URL changes essential. If the internal links aren’t adapted accordingly, this can lead to a 404 error message. The same applies if an external website links to a page that no longer exists.

Deleting URLs:

A typical, 404 error occurs when you have deleted pages. This can happen either by accident or intentionally, if, for example, a product is no longer available in an online shop.

Here is what can possibly happen if you don’t configure a 404 Error Page.

The main reason to have a 404 page is that users don’t know why the URLs don’t work and no direction can have a negative experience with your website. Also, the Googlebot wants to access a non-existent resource but does not get the correct status code 404 or 410 that this URL is no longer available. And in both cases, Google will send a negative signal. This makes it all the more important to create a 404 error page.

However 404 errors do not essentially have a negative impact on the ranking of a website, and they don’t cause Google to penalize a website.

Nonetheless, don’t make your visitors feel lost, and configure a 404 page for them to know what you are up to exactly.