How to Find and Fix a 404 Error on Your Website

Every web user will eventually encounter the notorious”404″ page. It’s almost inevitable. However, even though it’s a common occurrence, however, it doesn’t mean that it’s something that brands should ignore.

If your visitors arrive on a page that is 404 this can lead to frustration. This makes them much more inclined to quit your site and high bounce rates can be detrimental to your business in terms of SEO (search engine optimization). And if you’ve got excessive links that redirect to pages with 404s, it can make appear as if you’re not taking your website seriously and don’t deserve confidence.

In the simplest terms, those 404 pages are important.

In the case of pages that are 404, the primary way to enhance the experience of your visitors is to lessen the chances of getting to a 404 page in the first place in the first place.

However, you must also realize that you may not be able to avoid any possibility of customers visiting an unresponsive page on your website, therefore the second thing you should do is to ensure that if they visit, the 404 page is well-designed and efficient.

Step 1: Find Your Current Broken Links

There are numerous tools specifically designed to assist owners of websites quickly and quickly determining the broken links that cause errors with 404 on a site. Plus is that many of them are completely free. Some of the most popular choices include:

Use a Free Broken Link Checker

Many websites offer free tools to identify broken links. Utilizing tools such as Broken Link Check, Ahrefs Broken Link Checker (pictured below) as well as Dead Link Checker all you have to do is enter the URL of your website into the tool and then wait for the site to search for the website for the broken links for.

Use the Broken Link Checker WordPress Plugin

If you’ve got a WordPress website You’re probably aware you can use a plugin for almost everything. Naturally, this isn’t just for finding broken links. The no-cost Broken Link Checker plugin will check the hyperlinks on your site and compile an inventory of those which aren’t working and make it simple to modify or remove each link.

A disadvantage of the use of a plugin like Broken Link Checker is that it could temporarily slow your website while it’s running So keep this in mind when you decide which one to choose.

Find broken Links by using SEO Spider

SEO Spider tool from the SEO Spider tool from

Screaming Frog

broken links

The program will crawl your site to help you find several problems, such as broken links. For websites with more than 500 page, the program is completely cost-free. To locate

damaged links using SEO Spider, you will require a download of the software. After you’ve downloaded it then you need to enter your URL, and then click to start. It can take a while to go through your entire site.

You’ll be able see the broken link by simply clicking Response Codes, and then selecting Client Error. Find out the location of the link on your site by clicking the link and then choosing Inlinks. To view an inventory of all broken links in spreadsheet format (which could make the task of fixing them much easier) select bulk export, Response codes and Client Error Inlinks.

Step 2: Fix Your Broken Links

When you’ve got an inventory of the broken links on your website, it’s now time to move on to the tough part. You must go in and fix every one of them. Find out which links require an update and which ones should be deleted. Follow your progress as move along to ensure that you don’t miss anything, and visit each website to check the updated link before proceeding with the following.

This can take some time, but your customers will enjoy more enjoyable experiences on your site. It’s recommended to do this step every 3 months or so to make sure that you fix any broken links that appear within the shortest amount of time. The more frequently you take this step the easier it is every time. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to spot the bad links before other users are able to.

Step 3: Update Your 404 Page

Even if you are constantly checking for broken links, there may be instances where you do not find one at the right the same time. There will also be times when people type in a URL incorrectly. Certain users will likely end up on your 404 page, no matter how you handle it. Therefore, make the most of them whenever they occur.

404 Page Best Practices

To improve the quality of your 404 page and make it more efficient, you should consider some of the most important best practices for 404 pages.

1. Make sure it’s on the mark.

It is important for people to know that they’re still on your site when they visit an unrelated page, in order to lessen confusion. A lot of brands continue to use generic 404 pages, which have no branding and have no visual connection with the rest of the site.

This kind of page can take the user far away from your site in their mind and is almost certain to ensure that they’ll never click again.

In addition, you want your visitors to feel like they’re in your company. It is important for the page to keep within your general branding style and the messages you’re trying to convey. NASA pulls this off by creating a page that showcases the splendor of the stars and still features the NASA logo as well as the main menu.

It’s evident that you’re more likely to stay on the site when you arrive on this page instead of the one above.2. Use it to your advantage.

The person who visits your site landed there because they were trying to navigate to another page. You don’t want them quit trying to find the site they wanted to go to, so do everything you could to help make the process simple.

Add a search bar as well as suggested links to help users return to the main areas that the majority of your users want to visit.

ModCloth’s page 404 features the hamburger menu, as well as an search bar on at the top. It also has hyperlinks to the primary pages they intend to direct users to, including new Arrivals as well as Bestsellers. It also has the cheesy word “Punch,” so you get points for this.

3. Inject some personality.

The 404 pages can be boring and technical. The user is looking at something different from what they’re trying to find. You do not want to make the experience any more difficult. Therefore, improve it by making it entertaining and adding an authentic character to the page.

The two examples above are effective in capturing the character of the brand, and also making it more engaging for the user navigating the site.

How to Update Your 404 Page

If you’re convinced it’s time to design an individual 404 page for your site, but you’re not sure of the technical aspect of changing your 404 page functions this part should not be difficult to understand.

Contact your web hosting service provider for specific instructions on how you can connect and edit your page on 404. If you’re using WordPress and WordPress, you are able to follow these steps or take another route, and test using a plugin similar to this.

Log in to your cPanel account.

Find and click the icon that says Custom Error Pages.

Select the wrong page from the drop-down menu.

You’ll be presented with a page with an empty text box. Enter the HTML code of the webpage you want to display.

Click Save.

Go to fake URLs on your site to confirm whether your update was successful and you are happy with how it appears. (You can usually create a fake URL by adding a random letter to the end of the real one, for example http://your-site.com/a).

And you’re done! If writing the actual HTML code for your page seems like a daunting task even if you’re not a reputable web designer in your corner, HostGator’s site builder allows you to create all of your pages — including 404 pages — fast and simple.