Not Found (404) Errors In Google Search Console: What Needs Fixing?

Are you getting notifications from Google Search Console about “Not found (404)” errors? An email saying your pages aren’t in Google can make it sound like your website is broken. If you’ve been investing in SEO, you probably want to know whether you’re losing traffic or potential customers.

Fix a 404 when the page should still exist. Redirect it when the content has moved. Leave it alone when you intentionally removed the page and there’s no suitable replacement. The email alone won’t tell you which case applies.

I’d start with the addresses Google lists, rather than the total error count. One missing service page can deserve more attention than dozens of retired URLs. Here’s how to tell the difference.

What Are Not Found (404) Errors?

A 404 is an HTTP status code your website sends when it can’t find a page at the URL someone asked for. Googlebot is Google’s web crawler. When it visits that address and gets a 404, Search Console notes that the page wasn’t found.

Google won’t index a page that returns a 404. If it used to show up in search, Google will drop it from the results over time. Google’s HTTP status code documentation explains how these responses affect crawling and indexing.

A “soft 404” is a separate issue. For example, a page might show a missing-page message but send a 200 success response. A helpful error page can still send a 404. Its design doesn’t set its status code.

What Causes 404 Errors To Appear In Search Console?

Most 404s come from changes to content or links. You might delete an old post, change a service page’s URL, or launch a redesigned website without redirecting its old addresses. A typo in a link can also send Google to a URL that never existed.

Google finds URLs through links on your site, links from other sites, and records of pages it crawled before. That means it can keep checking an old address long after you’ve removed the content. A new alert doesn’t mean something broke today.

On WordPress, a page that still exists can fail to load due to permalink or rewrite-rule problems. If several current pages suddenly return 404s, have your website provider investigate what changed. Adding a redirect for each URL won’t fix the cause if your current pages can’t load.

When A 404 Error Needs To Be Fixed

Start with URLs that people should still be able to use. Service pages, pricing pages, and posts that bring in potential buyers are good places to look. Also check addresses linked from your own website or listed in your XML sitemap. These links send people or Google to pages they can’t reach.

Choose the fix based on what should happen at that address:

For example, say your MSP changes a service page from /it-support/ to /managed-it-support/. An older blog post still links to the original address. A prospect follows it and lands on a missing-page screen.

Add a 301 redirect from the old address to the new service page, then update the blog link to use the new URL directly. The redirect also helps people following older links from other websites. Keep your sitemap focused on current URLs you want Google to index.

These repairs fit into the broader process of optimizing your MSP website: make important content accessible and keep the path to contacting you working.

When A 404 Is Harmless And Can Be Ignored

If you chose to delete a page and there’s no good page to take its place, a 404 is the right response. The same goes for broken addresses that never held useful content. Just make sure your own site doesn’t link to them.

Google confirms that expected 404s don’t hurt other pages’ rankings. You don’t need to bring back an unwanted page just to clear an alert.

Avoid redirecting every missing URL to your homepage. Someone looking for a specific service or article won’t necessarily find an answer there, and Google may treat an unrelated redirect as a soft 404. Use a redirect when the new page serves the same need as the old one.

How To Review The 404 Report In Google Search Console

Use the report to find the URLs and decide what each one should do:

1. Sign in to Google Search Console and select your website property.
2. Open Indexing > Pages. Under “Why pages aren’t indexed,” choose “Not found (404).”
3. Review the example URLs. Start with current business pages and addresses you know from recent changes.
4. Inspect a URL to see what Google found when it last crawled the page. If you’ve already fixed it, use Test live URL to check the current response.
5. Apply the appropriate fix from the table above. If the URL redirects, check that its destination is the intended page.

Google’s Page Indexing report guide explains the report in more detail. If your agency handles these issues, you can follow our instructions for granting Search Console access.

Once you’ve fixed the URLs, you can use Validate Fix to ask Google to check the changes. It doesn’t repair your website, and Google can also detect fixes through normal crawling.

Old entries can remain until Google revisits them. URLs you chose to delete may still appear too. The Removals tool hides URLs from search results; it doesn’t clear 404 entries from this report.

Keep Your Important Pages Available

I’d focus on whether prospects can reach the content they need, rather than trying to make every reported URL disappear. Fixing the right URLs keeps the paths people use to learn about your services and contact you working.

If you need help separating harmless entries from broken pages, our technical SEO services can help find and fix issues that keep your pages out of search. For MSPs looking for ongoing support, these fixes also form part of a broader MSP SEO strategy.

Ready to get your important pages working again? Book a free consultation to discuss your website’s indexing issues.