One of the most common error codes is the
404-error code. Values 400 to 499 indicate page loading problems and the 404-error means that the page is permanently gone and therefore unavailable. Usually, these errors can be fixed easily in just a few steps. Down below, you can find out how to fix these yourself with the help of a free WordPress plugin.
Soft 404 Errors
Soft 404 errors can be quite annoying or even confusing, and they will result in turning your
traffic away from the site.
What happens is that the server sends a 200 OK status report (success) for the sent request, but in return,
Google decides to return a 404 error (failure). This can happen if the page content is perceived as an error and or if the page is lacking content.
You may think that pages with soft 404 errors are pages that aren’t supposed to exist, but still do, and you are correct. Unfortunately, as this may be confusing to you, it is the same for search engines as they can get confused and create soft 404 errors. A
soft 404 error is a label added by search engines that helps distinguish these pages. If such errors show up in your Google Search Console, you should address these as soon as possible.
After a
404 page returns a 200 OK status report, the page exists and can pop up in a search engine results page if it was crawled and indexed. This should be avoided at all costs. If a search result gets a soft
404 error label, then it won’t show in the index.
This can happen quite often, even in
WordPress, which is pretty reliable. Sometimes, a (blank) page will be automatically generated, and having empty pages in WordPress will result in such soft 404 errors.
On occasion, a temporary issue with crawling can occur, which is when Google crawls the page, then,
some of the resources such as CSS and or JS can’t be loaded and result in the page showing no content, making Google perceive and report a 404 error.
For example, if you make a new tag in
WordPress and leave it empty, as it is by default, and then view it in developer’s tools, you’ll see that the page returns a 200 status report with a so-called “nothing found message”.
404 Errors
This error is mostly known as a 404 Not Found or a
Page Not Found error. When a page isn’t found, it returns an HTTP status code of 404 or 410, meaning it can’t be found.
The
HTTP response code reports an established connection to the requested server, but the server can’t find the request. Sites can generate a "404 Not Found" if a user tries to open a non-working link (URL). Even though this can happen to many developers, it is a rookie mistake and should be taken care of immediately.
Why is it Important to Fix These Errors?
Soft and hard 404 errors will negatively impact your
SEO ranking because search engines don’t like indexing and linking permanently gone or moved content. This is a waste of Google’s resources, which in return will negatively impact your ranking. The errors represent the lack of work and care, making your content quality drop. Furthermore, you don’t want Google to remove your URLs even if they result in 404 errors.
Search engines put in a certain (small) amount of time into crawling your site and when
Google is crawling, you want them working on your valid content, not the broken one.
How to Fix 404 Errors With 301 Redirects?
So,
what are 301 redirects? These are useful tools for managing your site’s content. You can manage articles, sites, backlinks, etc. If your original URL is down, a redirect will send the request to a working URL, instead of showing (soft) 404 errors due to the content being down or moved permanently. This will boost your user experience, while also ensuring stability. When you redirect a page, it is important to update your backlinks to ensure that the request is sent to the new working
URL.
If you want to save yourself a lot of time,
301 Redirects – Easy Redirect Manager is the best plugin for quick and simple redirects.
301 Redirects – Easy Redirect Manager
This highly-rated
WordPress plugin is free and super easy to use, thanks to its simple installation process and user-friendly interface. Easy Redirect Manager will help you manage your redirects, which will boost your SEO and site traffic. With this plugin, you can safely redirect your content, such as backlinks, posts, archives, etc. when they expire. This will ensure that users get sent to the working URL, instead of being presented with 404 errors.
By redirecting your content, your users won’t suffer from a bad user experience and it will actually boost your traffic numbers. Also, if needed, your whole site can be redirected with this powerful plugin. In order to maximize SER & SEO, redirects are crucial and often required. Why do all the heavy lifting yourself, when this plugin can save you a lot of time? Since the plugin is highly rated, and the reviews speak for themselves, it proves that this is in fact, a quality product. The plugin is compatible with the latest WordPress and
PHP versions.
Types of Use
Over time, a lot of content goes through your site’s database and often, some of the content will get broken or will expire. Let’s say you have some old articles on your site, and in them are some backlinks that lead to other sites or content like images. Eventually, these
backlinks will expire as the server may be down, or the content has been moved to another location.
If this happens, it is recommended to redirect your links to preserve your SEO & SER. Upon redirecting, you will keep your content visible to your users and they won’t be presented with 404 errors upon
loading a page. This can improve your traffic numbers and most importantly, it will ensure the safety of your site’s content.
How to Use Easy Redirect Manager?
Thankfully, this does not require any coding skills, and thanks to its simple user interface, it is easy to navigate through the dashboard.
The first step is to upload the
eps-301-redirects folder to the WordPress plugins directory.
of the most common error codes is the
404-error code. Values 400 to 499 indicate page loading problems and the 404-error means that the page is permanently gone and therefore unavailable. Usually, these errors can be fixed easily in just a few steps. Down below, you can find out how to fix these yourself with the help of a free WordPress plugin.
Soft 404 Errors
Soft 404 errors can be quite annoying or even confusing, and they will result in turning your
traffic away from the site.
What happens is that the server sends a 200 OK status report (success) for the sent request, but in return,
Google decides to return a 404 error (failure). This can happen if the page content is perceived as an error and or if the page is lacking content.
You may think that pages with soft 404 errors are pages that aren’t supposed to exist, but still do, and you are correct. Unfortunately, as this may be confusing to you, it is the same for search engines as they can get confused and create soft 404 errors. A
soft 404 error is a label added by search engines that helps distinguish these pages. If such errors show up in your Google Search Console, you should address these as soon as possible.