How to Fix 404 Errors in Google Search Console (Step-by-Step)

404 errors in Google Search Console mean Google tried to crawl a URL on your site and got a "page not found" response. Left unfixed, they waste crawl budget, dilute link equity, and create a frustrating experience for anyone following old links to your site.

The good news: 404 errors are one of the most straightforward technical SEO issues to fix. This guide walks you through finding them, understanding their severity, and resolving them for good.

Where to Find 404 Errors in Google Search Console

Google Search Console reports 404s in two places:

1. Pages with crawl anomalies (Coverage → Not Found)

Go to Index → Pages (formerly Coverage) in the left sidebar. Under the "Error" or "Excluded" tabs, look for:

"Not found (404)" — pages Google tried to crawl that returned a 404
"Soft 404" — pages that returned a 200 status but Google determined the content was equivalent to a not-found page

Click on any status to see the affected URLs.

2. URL Inspection Tool

For a specific URL you're investigating, use the URL Inspection Tool (top search bar in GSC). Enter the full URL and Google will show you the last crawled status, including whether it returned a 404.

Not All 404 Errors Are Equal

Before fixing everything, prioritize. Some 404s don't need to be fixed at all.

High priority — fix these:

Pages that previously had backlinks pointing to them
Pages that had significant organic traffic before they were removed
URLs that appear in your XML sitemap
Internal links pointing to 404 pages

Low priority — can often ignore:

Junk URLs that bots invented (e.g., /wp-admin/, /phpmyadmin/, random paths)
Old URLs that were never real pages on your site
Pages removed intentionally with no replacement content

To check whether a 404 URL had backlinks, copy the URL and run it through a backlink checker. If other sites link to it, it's worth redirecting.

The 5 Root Causes of 404 Errors (and How to Fix Each)

Cause 1: You deleted a page without a redirect

The most common cause. You removed a product, deleted a blog post, or restructured your site — and the old URL now returns 404.

Fix: Set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the closest equivalent page. A 301 passes roughly 90% of the original page's link equity to the destination.

Where to add redirects depends on your platform:

WordPress: Use a plugin like Redirection or add rules to .htaccess
Shopify: Settings → Navigation → URL Redirects
Next.js / Vercel: Add to redirects in next.config.js or vercel.json
Apache: .htaccess file with RewriteRule
Nginx: return 301 in your server block

If there's no equivalent page to redirect to, redirect to the category or parent page. If no reasonable destination exists, let it 404 — don't redirect everything to the homepage, as that creates "soft 404" problems.

Cause 2: You changed the URL slug

You renamed a page from /old-blog-post to /new-blog-post without redirecting the old URL.

Fix: Same as above — add a 301 redirect from the old slug to the new one. Also update any internal links pointing to the old URL.

Cause 3: Internal links point to the wrong URL

A typo or outdated link in your navigation, blog posts, or footer is sending both users and Googlebot to a URL that doesn't exist.

Fix: Search your site's codebase or CMS for the broken URL and update it to the correct destination. This is also an opportunity to audit all internal links for freshness.

Cause 4: Your sitemap references dead URLs

If your XML sitemap lists URLs that return 404, Google wastes crawl budget and may penalize your overall indexing quality.

Fix: Audit your sitemap. Remove any URLs that 404 (or redirect). Most platforms regenerate sitemaps automatically once you fix the underlying pages, but verify the sitemap is clean after making changes.

Cause 5: External links point to old URLs

Other websites linked to a URL that no longer exists on your site. You can't edit their links, but you can handle the inbound traffic gracefully.

Fix: Set up a 301 redirect from the 404 URL to the best matching page. This captures the link equity and sends any visitors who click the link somewhere useful.

Step-by-Step Fix Process

Export the 404 URLs from GSC Pages report (download the full list as CSV)
Sort by priority — backlinked URLs first, then any that appear in your sitemap, then internal link sources
For each URL, determine: Was this a real page? Does a replacement page exist?
Create redirects for URLs that had traffic, backlinks, or internal links
Update internal links pointing to 404 pages
Regenerate and resubmit your sitemap once fixes are in place
Request reindexing using the URL Inspection Tool for high-priority pages
Wait 1–2 crawl cycles (typically 1–4 weeks) and verify the 404s clear from the Pages report

How to Tell Google You've Fixed the Error

After implementing redirects or restoring a page, you can accelerate Google's awareness:

In GSC, go to the URL Inspection Tool
Enter the old URL (or the redirecting URL)
Click "Request Indexing"

This doesn't guarantee an immediate re-crawl, but it puts the URL in the priority crawl queue. For most sites, errors clear from the Coverage report within 2–4 weeks of being fixed.

What About Soft 404 Errors?

A soft 404 is when your server returns a 200 OK status code, but Google determines the page content is effectively empty or a "not found" message. This commonly happens when:

Your CMS shows a "no results" or "page not found" template with a 200 status instead of a real 404
You redirect deleted products to a generic category page that's nearly empty
A page loads successfully but its content says "this page no longer exists"

Fix for soft 404s: Either restore real content to the URL, set up a proper 301 redirect to a relevant destination, or return a genuine 404 status code so Google knows the page is intentionally gone.

Preventing Future 404 Errors

Once you've cleared your 404 backlog, set up systems to catch new ones before they compound:

Monthly GSC audit: Check the Pages report for new 404s at least monthly
Redirect checklist: Make URL redirects a required step in your content publishing or site restructuring workflow
Broken link monitoring: Use a tool that crawls your site and alerts you to internal 404s
Sitemap hygiene: Verify your sitemap auto-removes or flags deleted pages

Google Search Console will continue reporting new 404s as Google discovers them, so the Pages report is your ongoing monitoring dashboard.

Quick Reference: 404 Fix Decision Tree

URL returns 404
│
├─ Was it a real page with traffic or backlinks?
│   ├─ YES → Set up 301 redirect to best matching page
│   └─ NO → Was it in your sitemap or linked internally?
│       ├─ YES → Fix sitemap/internal link, let it 404 naturally
│       └─ NO → Ignore (bot-invented URL, not your content)
│
└─ After fixing:
    ├─ Request reindexing via URL Inspection Tool
    └─ Monitor Pages report for 2–4 weeks

Fixing 404 errors is one of the highest-ROI technical SEO tasks because it recovers link equity, improves crawl efficiency, and removes a negative signal from your Coverage report. Start with your highest-traffic and most-linked pages, set up a redirect workflow, and you'll keep your Pages report clean going forward.