What Is a 404 Not Found Error (and How to Fix It).
The 404 not found error is an HTTP status code that appears when the website server cannot find the page you were trying to load. You usually see a 404 not found error when you click on a broken link or bookmark.
In this article, we will explain what a 404 not found error is, what causes it, and what you can do to fix it.
What Causes a 404 Not Found Error
The 404 not found error is one of the most common error codes on the web. This is a client side error that appears when the web server cannot find a specific page for a URL.
The most likely causes of the 404 not found error are:
Wrong URLChanged URL or domain nameDeleted pages or missing pages
Many website administrators create custom error pages for the 404 not found error code, so it may appear differently depending on which website you’re trying to load.
Here are some common HTTP 404 error names:
404 Not FoundThe requested URL [URL] was not found on this server404 Page not foundError 404. The page you are looking for, cannot be found. HTTP 404404 File or directory not foundError 404 not found
The 404 not found error isn’t just dangerous for people browsing the internet. If you are running a website, an error means that people visiting your site will load your page, see the error code, and then leave after a few seconds. Most people will not revisit the page. This can negatively impact SEO because Google’s algorithms think your page doesn’t match the user’s search query.
Quick Fixes
There are several ways to fix a 404 error, including:
Refresh the page. Sometimes a 404 error page is caused by a minor glitch. Press F5 or click the refresh button in the top left corner of the web browser. Check the URL. Check the URL in the search bar for spelling errors. This is often the cause of the 404 error, and a quick scan for typos is enough to fix the problem. Use Google. Try to find the page using a popular search engine like Bing or Google. Type the website home page and the name of the web page that is causing the 404 error into the address bar and press Enter. If the site administrator has changed the page’s URL, it should show up here. Web site search. Similarly, you can try going up one directory level at a time until you find a page that loads, and then navigate the website to find the right page. For example, if www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to does not load, navigate up the directory level (for example, www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/). and try to find the page there.
The Whole Site Is Down
If you are unable to load any pages from a website, the site is most likely down. Use a service like Is It Down Right Now? to see if there is a problem with the site. Alternatively, you can check social media (if it’s a popular site or if the site has its own social media pages) to see if anyone else is having the same problem.
If the whole site is down and it only affects you, you can try the following:
Clear your browser cache. If you think that the 404 error is only happening to you (for example, you can download it on another device), try clearing your browser cache. Check out our guide on how to clear the cache in all popular browsers. Change DNS servers. Changing the DNS server can sometimes fix the 404 error. However, if the entire website is throwing a 404 not found error, it may have been blocked by your ISP or government censorship filters. Notify the website administrator. Finally, you can contact the website administrator to let them know about the problem. Sometimes there are minor misconfigurations during website updates that can affect the performance of the site and they may not notice it.
How to Fix the 404 Not Found Error on my Website
If you are a website or administrator and want to find and remove broken links from your website to improve user experience, try checking Google Search Console. This tool uses crawlers to check your website for issues, including links that cause users to get a 404 response code.
Go to the Google Search Console website and select Get Started Now.
Enter your website URL and verify that you are the owner of the domain. To do this, go to the hosting control panel and enter the TXT record. The update may take some time.
Once confirmed, click Go to Property.
From the menu on the left, select Coating.
Here you should see all errors related to your pages.
If you are using WordPress, you can easily fix the 404 error. Usually, 404 errors on the WordPress platform are caused by problems with the .htaccess file.
Fix the 404 error on your site by doing the following:
Open the WP admin panel. In the “Settings” section, select “Permalinks”.
Click Save Changes.
This should overwrite the .htaccess file and reset the rewrite rules, solving your problem with the 404 error code.
Alternatively, you can use a dead link checker like www.deadlinkchecker.com or the SEMRush audit tool.
Get Back to Browsing
Whether you’re a website administrator or just trying to read an article, there’s nothing worse than seeing a 404 error. This is one of the most common and annoying error codes, but now you know how to fix it if it reappears.