The HTTP error 404 is one of the most common that you’ll find while browsing the Internet, and that’s mainly because it’s born out of human error by default. If you or I make a mistake in the way that we present a website to the world, an HTTP error 404 is just one of many ways that a web server will reveal a fault in the page that’s being requested.

By far the most obvious reason for the error 404 is that a web page has been moved or hidden, and is longer accessible at the address where it was once located. There are many reasons why we might want to move a page. We might want to restructure our website, or to rename the files to versions that will perform better in the search engines. Alternatively, we might want to change all the file extensions to produce advanced programming language capabilities. For example, MyPage.html and MyPage.php or two distinctly different web addresses and if you access the .html version when there is only a .php version present, you will normally receive an HTTP error 404.

You will notice when browsing many established websites, the 404 error has been custom coded to suit the design of the site. This is handled by the web server, which outputs a pre-formatted page every time it encountered the typical 404 error feedback. By doing this, brand identifiable companies can gloss over any hidden or deleted pages without throwing the ugly generic error 404 page, which can look quite plain and disenchanting to the average user.

So what is the precise reason for an error 404? It’s important not to confuse the 404 error with other forms of “server not found” problems. The error 404 actually represents that a partial connection with the server was made. It shows that the client (that’s us) was able to connect with the server via HTTP protocol. The problem is that the server either couldn’t find the very specific page that we requested, and is thus unable to return it to the browser, or that the page has been modified with server permissions that make it impossible to return.

If you are a webmaster who suffers from 404 errors across a site regularly, you should work to ensure that all links to old pages are removed from working pages, as these present the chance of being clicked on by a browsing user and the error 404 will almost certainly be returned.

Alternatively, if you are moving a page to a new location, you should be aware that links to the old location may be scattered around the web on other websites. For this reason, you should add a 301 redirect either to a fresh new page renamed to match the old location, or in a .htaccess file which will control via the HTTP any redirections that need to be made, and where they should go.

Manual maintenance of your web pages is vital to weeding out those annoying error 404 messages. If you’re getting these same errors on third party websites, there isn’t much you can do other than go back to Google and search for what you’re looking for again. Google will try to remove all pages that have an error 404 from its index.

Get a Free Online Diagnostic Scan with RegCure PC Optimizer (Download 2 Mins)