A 404 error is a one of HTTP status code that means that the current given URL you were trying to reach on a website couldn’t be found on their web server. Generally “404 Not Found” HTTP standard response code will be displayed on a website when user trying to access broken link or dead link.
Either the visitor mistyped the URL or the permalink structure of the given site has been changed and the incoming links point to pages that were moved to different locations. It usually happens when a site has recently moved to another web server and the DNS (Domain Name System) still points to the old location.
Every web server providing the feature to the developer to maintain HTTP 404 status by own. A developer can implement their custom process (Executing script, redirection, ..) when web server generating 404 error status. There are several common ways in which you might see this HTTP 404 status below:
- 404 Error
- 404 Not Found
- Error 404
- 404 Page Not Found
- The requested URL <URL> was not found on this server.
- HTTP 404
- Error 404 Not Found
- 404 File or Directory Not Found
- HTTP 404 Not Found
- Oops! That page can’t be found.
- 404 Error Page Not Found
HTTP 404 error status will cause big problems in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) because this error status will increase the bounce rate of your site. It means the user who comes to your website leave immediately and search engines will increase bounce rate.
The most common solution for this is using 301 redirections for permanently removed pages, URL or 302 HTTP status to inform web server that URL has been temporarily redirected to another URL. If the Web server does not return an alternative URL with the 302 response, then either the Web server software itself is defective or the Webmaster has not set up the URL redirection correctly.