• Google Search Console

Verify your website with Google Search Console. Now click on “diagnostics,” then “crawl,” “crawl errors,” and “not found.” After clicking “not found,” you will come across a list of all the URLs of 404 errors that Google has found. This is regarded as one of the easiest ways to find 404 errors. The reason is that there is no requirement for third-party plugins or additional scanning against your site. You can take advantage of the data provided by the Google bot.

• Crawl tools

Broken link crawl tools help you find 404 errors on your website. One of the most famous crawl tools is Screaming Frog. Such tools help check each and every link on your website and see whether the link is taking the audience to the 404 error. These tools can do much beyond finding the not-found errors. Want to assess the health of the links you have within your website? Run a crawl. The best part is that installing and configuring these tools is simple.

• Web log analysis

If you want to go through the inner workings of your website, the log file is the answer to having a wealth of information by your side. You just need to have some means of accessing the log file of your website. Log files provide you with a list of URLs that are showing 404 errors. Yet another function of log files is to pay attention to every user who is visiting your website, not just the humans but automated programs like robots as well.

• Web analytics tools

How are 404 errors impacting the performance of your website? You can measure this through web analytics tools. For instance – Segment your analytics reports on the basis of those who came across a 404 error and those who didn’t encounter an error. Did people finding 404 errors are refraining from becoming customers? If yes, it gives you all the more reason to fix these 404 errors. Use page titles in GA4 for the same. Go to “reports,” “engagement,” “pages,” and “screens”. Change the dimension of “pages and screens” to “page title and screen class.” Click the “+” sign, add a secondary dimension “Page path and screen class,” and ultimately look for 404 error pages in the table by performing a search.

• Ways to Fix a 404 Error

There are various technical SEO tools to fix the problem of 404 errors. Some ways to solve this are listed below –

• Restore deleted pages

If the demand for the web page you deleted is still high, restore the original page. It will give users the chance to find the content they are looking for instead of “404 page not found”.

• Predict the typos

It is common to see people making mistakes typing the URLs directly into the browser. Predict common typo mistakes people usually make. Now, establish redirects. These redirects will transfer the visitors to the non-typo version from the typo one. Keep track of log files of your website to find out which redirects are used. Eliminate those that are not in use.  

• Clear cache

Double-check the URL after typing it. After all, typos are not a new norm; they are more widely common than you might think. Refresh the page. Still in vain? Use another device to open the same link. If it is opening there, there might be a problem with your computer’s cache. Clear the cache to make the things work.

• Correct the broken link

A broken link is a link sending traffic to a non-existent page. If it is an internal broken link, you can correct it at the source. This is where the importance of technical SEO will serve you with the solutions because you can use technical SEO tools like SEM Rush, Ahrefs, etc, to fix broken links. For instance – if your website has a link to “/specials” showing an error, change it to the link that is working on your website, like “/special-offers.” Updating it will no longer get an error message to the users.