Just in time for Halloween, Google released a video about the thing that frightens website owners more than almost anything else: the 404 error.
The video is part of Google's "Non-Canonical Cabinet" series, and it features Gary Illyes and Cherry Prommawin from Google's Search team. It opens with Gary draped in a tablecloth, pretending to be a ghost. I can't promise every Google announcement is this entertaining, but this one comes with some sensible, reassuring advice, and it's worth knowing about if you've ever opened Google Search Console and felt your heart sink.
You can watch the video on YouTube (it's under ten minutes).
First, what is a 404?
Every time someone visits a page on your website, your server (the computer where your website lives) sends back a short code along with the page. You never see it, but browsers and search engines do. A "200" means everything's fine. A "404" means "not found": the page someone asked for doesn't exist. That might be because you deleted it, renamed it, or changed its web address when the site was redesigned. Or it might be because someone linked to you with a typo. Either way, the visitor gets a "page not found" message instead of what they were looking for.
If you use Google Search Console (Google's free tool for seeing how your site performs in search), you'll probably have seen a list of pages marked "Not found (404)". It looks like an error report, it's often quite long, and it's natural to assume something is badly wrong. Plenty of people then assume Google is punishing their website, or that their rankings will suffer until every last one is fixed. Some get told this by people trying to sell them an "SEO audit", which doesn't help.
What Google actually said
Google was refreshingly blunt. Gary Illyes said there is "no penalty, no secret Google jail" when Google finds a 404. Pages disappear from the web all the time, products sell out and services change, and Google expects that. When it finds a missing page, it eventually drops it from its index (its huge catalogue of web pages), and that's the end of it. The missing page doesn't drag down the rest of your website.
Google also busted a common myth: 404s don't eat into your "crawl budget" (the amount of attention Google gives to crawling your site). For most small business websites, crawl budget isn't something you need to think about anyway, but it's good to have it confirmed.
What Google does say is worth paying attention to is a different kind of error. "500" errors mean your server is struggling, and "429" errors mean it's turning visitors away because it's getting too many requests. Those can make Google slow down how often it visits your site. If you see those in Search Console, that's a conversation to have with your web designer or hosting company. (It ties in with what I wrote last week about keeping your website up to date and secure, as a site that's struggling or offline is a much bigger problem than a few missing pages.)
So it doesn't matter at all?
Not quite. Google's point is that a 404 isn't a search engine problem, but it can be a business problem.
Think about it from the visitor's side. Someone has clicked a link expecting to find your boiler servicing page, your menu, or that product they saw on Facebook, and they've hit a dead end instead. Google doesn't care. Your potential customer might, and they may well hit the back button and go to a competitor instead. So the question isn't "how do I get rid of all my 404s?" It's "are any of these missing pages costing me customers?"
Google's approach
Google suggested a simple way to decide what to do with a missing page….
If there's a genuine replacement, redirect to it. A redirect automatically sends visitors (and Google) from the old address to the new one. If you've renamed your "Kitchen Fitting" page to "Kitchen Installation", send people from the old page to the new one. The key word is genuine. The replacement should be the same thing, or a direct successor to it.
If the page has gone for good and there's no natural replacement, let it stay a 404. That's fine, and it's what Google expects. (There's also a "410" code, which means "gone permanently", but a 404 does the job perfectly well for most small sites.)
Either way, make your 404 page as helpful as possible. More on that in a moment.
Google also warned against a popular shortcut: redirecting every missing page to your home page. It sounds tidy, but it's confusing. Someone looking for a specific service ends up on your home page with no idea why, and it muddies your website statistics too.
What makes a good 404 page
Most websites show a fairly grim default message, something like "Page not found" in small text with very little else. That's a missed opportunity. A good 404 page should:
Say clearly, in plain and friendly language, that the page they wanted isn't there, and ideally sound like your business rather than a computer.
Help them find what they were after, with links to your main services or product categories, and a search box if your site has one.
Make it easy to get in touch, with your phone number and a link to your contact page. Someone who has gone looking for a specific page is often ready to buy.
Keep your normal menu and branding, so they don't think they've left your website altogether.
A bit of personality doesn't hurt either. A good 404 page can even raise a smile, which is better than leaving someone annoyed.
One technical point is worth passing on to whoever looks after your website. A custom 404 page should still send back a proper 404 code behind the scenes. If it says "page not found" on screen but tells Google everything is fine, Google calls this a "soft 404", and it can cause confusion. Most website builders handle this correctly when you use their built-in custom 404 setting (I checked a Squarespace site and it does), and on WordPress it's usually handled by your theme, but it's worth a quick check.
A quick check you can do today
Try this now. Type your website address followed by a made-up page, something like yourwebsite.co.uk/this-page-does-not-exist, and see what appears. Is it helpful? Does it look like your website? Would a customer know what to do next?
Then, if you have Search Console set up, look at the list of 404 pages and ask one question about each: does this page matter? The ones worth fixing are the pages that used to get visitors or that other websites link to. Old service pages, popular blog posts and products that have been replaced are the usual suspects.
And while you're at it, check the links you control. The website link on your Google Business Profile, the links in your social media bios and old posts, and any links in your email signature should all go to pages that still exist. I've lost count of the Business Profiles I've seen sending customers to a page that disappeared in a redesign years ago.
Need a hand?
If your website's 404 page is a bit of a dead end, or you've got a Search Console report full of errors and you're not sure which ones matter, I'm happy to take a look. Sorting out a helpful 404 page and a few sensible redirects is usually a quick job, and it's one of those small things that quietly stops customers slipping away. Have a look at my web design and SEO services, or just get in touch.
