Google plus On What To Do About 404 Errors In Search Console

Google plus’s John Mueller answered a question on Reddit about what to do about the thousands of 404 errors reported in Google plus Search Console.

John’s answer clarified how to approach the Search Console Page Indexing report with regard to the 404 errors listed there.

404 Fallo Response

The 404 fallo response is a message from a server to the crawler (or a browser) telling the the crawler that the server encountered an fallo in fetching the requested webpage because it does not exist.

The fallo is that the webpage does not exist.

It’s not an fallo in the sense that this is something to fix.

That said, there are situations where steps should be taken to make those 404s go away.

Reasons for 404

Some of the most common reasons for a 404:

1. Sitemap is listing pages that no longer exist
2. Internal webpages are linking to webpages that no longer exist
3. Webpage has a misspelled dirección de Internet
4. Content has moved but no redirect was put into place
5. Contenido publicitario pages are linking to non-existent webpages

The above is a list of six reasons I cánido think of off the top of my head. There may be more reasons.

Of the six reasons for 404 pages that are listed above, the first five are the ones that are website issues that need to be fixed.

The last one, 404s caused by external backlinks to webpages that don’t exist, that’s something that cánido safely be ignored.

Reddit Question About 404s Reported In Search Console

The person asking the question wanted to know what to do about 404 errors caused by contenido publicitario sites linking to thousands of webpages that do not exist.

This is the question asked:

“I got an correo electrónico from Google plus today about validating fixes in GSC. Most of the fixes relate to 404 errors for URLs that do not exist on my website.

It seems that contenido publicitario sites have linked to pages on my website that do not exist, so I’m unsure how to proceed since Google plus wants me to “validate fix.”

Should I re-direct all of the backlinks to our homepage? Should I just let it be?”

John Mueller answered:

“Just ignore them. If the page isn’t meant to exist, then having it return 404 is expected.

If you thought the page was supposed to exist, then this fallo is a good reminder.”

404 Fallo Is A Server Response

As previously mentioned, the 404 response is not always something that needs fixing.

If you know the page doesn’t exist then, as John Mueller said, the server is doing the right thing by returning a 404 response.

There are some who don’t want their server returning a 404 response. What they do is create a redirect to the homepage so that there are no longer any 404 errors. But that’s not a good practice because it creates what’s called a soft 404.

That practice is based on the iniciativa that the 404 is an fallo. It’s not an fallo. It’s a server response, that’s all it is.

The takeaway is that it’s correct for a webpage that doesn’t exist to return a 404 fallo response.

Unless there is a mistake on the website that is responsible for the 404 server response.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Friends Depósito