Broken links are one of the most serious issues that can have a negative impact on your website's SEO. It may also disrupt the user experience and drive away potential customers and clients from your company.
The 404 error can be extremely frustrating, especially if you are unable to resolve it on your own. Fortunately, with these simple and effective tips, you will never again encounter the WordPress 404 error!
What is the "404 Page Not Found" WordPress Error?
When surfing the web, you may have encountered the well-known "404 page not found" error. This error appears when a URL you've visited no longer exists on the website.
This error is so common that almost every website has a special 404 page designed to serve visitors who discover broken links.
Whether you delete a page from your website or change the URL, the old links will still be indexed by Google. As a result, when a user clicks on this link, they will be visiting a "broken link." They will be shown the "404 page not found" error page.
What Causes 404 error page in WordPress?
A 404 error number indicates that the requested page could not be located. These URLs are called broken links. Broken links can occur for a variety of reasons, including:
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Deleted Page: When you delete a page or a post from your website, a broken link is created.
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Changed Slug: When you or someone else with access to your website changes the slug of a previously published page, the old URL becomes a broken link.
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Wrong URL: If a user misspells (typos) the URL of a page on your website, they will only see the 404 error page.
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Changing Domain Name: If you decide to move a site to a new domain name or change the location of a page on the server, it will result in broken links.
How to Find Broken Links
Needless to say, it is critical to identify and repair broken links in order to keep your website healthy and maintain good SEO rankings. To ensure that your website runs smoothly, check for broken links on a regular basis.
Here are some methods for checking for broken links.
Method (i): Use Google Search Console
If your website is registered with Google Search Console and is being indexed by Google, the search engine will notify you when broken links are discovered on your website.
You can also log in to your Search Console dashboard and navigate to the Coverage page to see if there are any issues or errors causing 404 errors.
The disadvantage of this method is that you must be the website's owner in order to access the Search Console dashboard. And it usually takes some time for Google to detect and report 404 errors.
Method (ii): Use an Online Tool
You can also check your website for broken links using online tools. This method is highly recommended because it uses no server resources.
Both the Dead Link Checker and the Broken Link Checker are useful tools for testing websites for broken links.
If you can afford it, both Ahrefs and SEMRush have tools for detecting dead links.
How to Fix Broken Links in WordPress
When you discover broken links on your website, you should fix them. Unfortunately, the only way to fix a broken link is to redirect it to another page. You can use Redirection, the free WordPress plugin for this task.
Step 1: Download and install the Redirection Plugin.
To install the plugin, first log in to your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins >> Add New.
Step 2: Create a Redirection
Once the setup is complete, navigate to the Redirection tab on the plugin page to create a new link redirect.
In the Source URL field, paste the URL to the old broken link. Then, in the Target URL field, paste the link to the page you want to redirect visitors to.
Click Add Redirect to create a redirected link.
When a user visits the old broken link, they will be redirected to another page on your site, avoiding the 404 page not found error.
To sum up
Fixing broken links is part of website maintenance and plays an important role in keeping the site's health in check. So, at least once a month, run a broken link check on your website. I hope that this article is very helpful for you. Besides, if you want to buy premium WordPress themes for your website then visit our theme gallery of themeix.