404 errors

Hi -

QQ on 404 errors. Do these harm your search rankings? I have a site with quite a few from moving stuff around. Should I ask google to remove from search - https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals - or just leave them? Seems quite messy.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Here is a simple answer for you. The algorithms don't just easily drop your site in the search engine results only because some of your links that you have placed out there direct to 404 pages.

If this is only temporary, then I wouldn't worry about it. So, 404 errors do not have a direct impact on your SEO. Indirectly though - if 404 errors are establishing a poor experience on your site - 404 errors can definitely hurt your SEO in the long haul.

See if you can find a way to improve more on your site's. It's not worth it to have these common errors on your site's. They are just bad for your business and anyone else's also.

I hope that I've been of help to you today.

Yes 404 error pages are not potential in any way.

They don't hurt seo directly.. but it's always suggested to keep an eye on them and reduce

ps Neil Patel has a good article about this where he explains on how u can improve the 404 page to act as a cornerstone and improve ux and juice distribution

You should check out the google webmaster central blog, there's a post explaining that whilst 404's may not directly affect your site in a negative manner, there may still be reasons as to why you may want to get rid of them such as a misspelled URL on an important page on your site.