Not every 404 in Search Console is a problem. Some pages should be gone. Here is how to tell which 404s need a redirect, which need a fix, and which you can safely ignore.
This guide explains the Not found (404) status in Google Search Console and what to do about it. It is part of my Search Console errors hub.
A 404 means the URL does not exist on your server. Google removes previously indexed 404 URLs from the index and crawls them less over time. 404s for pages that never existed or were removed on purpose are normal and harmless. Fix the ones that matter: important pages deleted by mistake, moved pages without redirects, and broken internal links.
| Situation | Action |
|---|---|
| Page moved to a new URL | 301 redirect to the new URL |
| Page deleted, a close replacement exists | 301 redirect to the replacement |
| Page deleted, no replacement | Leave as 404 or use 410 |
| URL never existed (typo, spam link) | Ignore |
| Your own internal link points to it | Fix the internal link |
| Page should exist and is broken | Restore the page |
Google treats all 4xx errors except 429 in a similar way: the content does not exist, previously indexed URLs are removed, and newly found 404 URLs are not processed and crawled less over time. A 410 says “gone for good” a little more clearly, but in practice both work.
Redirecting every 404 to the home page does not help. Google often treats irrelevant redirects as soft 404s. Redirect only when there is a truly equivalent page. See soft 404 error and 301 vs 302 redirects, and create rules with the htaccess redirect generator.
If a deleted page still has good backlinks from other sites, redirect it to the most relevant live page. This recovers value you would otherwise lose. Check with a backlink tool or the Links report.
Your custom 404 page should return a real 404 status, explain the page is missing, and offer search, popular pages and a link home. That keeps visitors who land there.
After a redesign, 120 old blog URLs show as 404. Forty have backlinks or traffic history and have new equivalents, so they get 301 redirects. The rest were thin tag pages with no value, so they stay 404. Internal links in old posts are updated to the new URLs.
I audit and fix speed, Core Web Vitals, indexing, redirects and schema, and send you a clear report of every change.
404s for pages that should not exist are normal and do not hurt the rest of your site. Fix broken internal links and important pages that were lost by mistake.
No. Redirect only to truly relevant pages. Mass redirects to the home page are often treated as soft 404s.
404 means not found; 410 means gone permanently. Google treats them very similarly.
Google recrawls them less often over time; they can show in reports for weeks or months, which is fine.
Use Validate fix only after you redirected or restored pages that should work.
Facts checked against these official pages on 10 October 2026. Read my editorial policy.
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