Last Updated on January 15, 2022 by Rick Darlinton
The 404 not found error happens when the URLs on your website are broken due to 404 client code. 404 pages not only affect the user experience when they visit your website but it also increase the bounce rate which is not good at all. What’s worse, so many 404 pages on your site could potentially harm your site SEO indirectly. One of the routine work as an SEO expert is to check the 404 pages on the website and also fix the 404 errors. In this post, we will show you several solutions about how to find 404 pages on your website
Google Search Console
Google console is one of the best platforms where you can find the 404 pages on your website. You can follow the tips below to check 404 pages on website.
First off, you have to register a google console account. It is very simple to do so. Just type google search console in google and then enter your website domain name. After that, copy the code to the header html part on your website. After verification, you can follow the steps below to check 404 pages on your website
- Go to Google search console
- Next, tap on the Coverage option on the left sidebar
- Now, you can tap on the Error option in the window and see whether it shoes some 404 not found errors.
- If it does not show 404 not found errors here, you can tap on the Excluded option in the google search console and then click on the option of Not Found 404 in google search console.
- So as you can see, it is easy to check 404 pages on website using Google search console.
Check 404 pages using the Semrush Siteaudit tool
Another solution you can use to find 404 pages on your website is to use a 404-page checker like the Semrush site audit tool. I have been working as an SEO expert for many years and one of the best SEO site audit tool I recommend is the Semrush site audit tool. It shows the detailed SEO on-page problems and also gives some recommendations about how to fix them. You can check the tips below about how to find 404 pages on your website using the Semrush tool.
Note: To use the Semrush site audit tool, you have to pay for its subscription plan. The price is USD120 per month for its Pro version. Currently, it does not offer a free trial for its site audit tool. If you think the price is beyond your budget, then you could ignore this solution.
- First off, register an account and then purchase its subscription.
- After that, find the Site Audit option on the left sidebar as shown below and then setup your website. It may take some time to set up your website site audit in Semrush, especially your website has tens of thousands of pages.
- After setup of Semrush site audit, the Semrush site audit tool will show some on-pages issues from the perspectives of errors, warnings,site health and some thematic reports.
- To check 404 pages on your website, just click the option of errors and it will show the detailed 404 not found errors including the 404 pages and broken URLs .
Check 404 pages using Google Analytics
Google Analytics is very helpful to let you know the website’s performance and visitors’ information. But you may not know that Google Analytics can also help you check 404 pages on your website. Now follow the steps below to find the 404 page not found error on your website.
- First, just go to the Google Analytics dashboard. If you do not use Google Analytics yet, it is also easy to connect Google Analytics with your website. Just search Google Analytics in google and then register an account with Gmail. After that, add the code to the header part of your website.
- Now go to Behavior on the left side and then go to Site content > All pages.
- Next, type 404 in the search box to check all the 404 pages on your website.
Find 404 not found error using Siteliner tool
Siteliner is very popular among SEO experts because it is one of the best free online tools to check copied content on your website but actually the Siteliner is also a 404-page checker. It is quite easy to use sideliner to find 404 pages on your website. Just enter your site domain and then it will show some broken pages as shown below
How to fix 404 not found error on your website
As said earlier, 404 pages are not good for SEO so you need to fix the 404 pages as this is one of important routine tasks as an SEO expert. Here, we introduce 2 common fixes about how to fix 404 not found errors.
Correct the broken URLs
When you find the 404 pages on your website, you just need to list the URLs that include the broken URLs. After that, replace the broken URLs with the relevant pages on your website. This can improve the user experience and reduce the bounce rate. Also, it will help improve online conversion.
Redirect the 404 pages
One of the most common solutions to fix 404 errors is to redirect the 404 pages to other relevant pages. Please note it is important to redirect to the pages relevant to the 404 pages. Otherwise, it may affect SEO if too many 404 pages are redirected to some pages that are not relevant at all.