How to Find and Fix 404s with Traffic

In today’s article, you’ll learn how to use Google Analytics to identify deleted and non-redirected pages on your site (404s) that are still driving traffic! You’ll also find out the best ways to recapture those visitors—and in some cases, even reclaim valuable links!

There are countless reasons why 404s can occur on a website, and just as many reasons why you should address this issue from an SEO perspective.

This time, we’ve chosen to focus on the 404s that are still driving traffic to your site, and what you can do yourself to win those visitors back.

In some cases, the actions we recommend will also help you reclaim valuable links, which is beneficial for your site’s overall SEO.

How is it possible that 404s can drive traffic to your site?

Even deleted pages on a site can still receive traffic, either because they remain indexed in Google, are linked to from other websites, are saved as bookmarks in someone’s browser, or simply because someone is trying to reach the page directly via the browser’s address bar.

Whatever the reason, there is often significant value in identifying these types of 404s and then handling them in the best possible way.

How to find 404s that drive traffic to your site

A simple way to identify 404s that drive traffic to your site is by using Google Analytics.

Of course, this assumes you already have a Google Analytics account and that your tracking code has been correctly implemented.

Then, follow these steps:

• Navigate to any 404 page on your site (for example by typing something like: yourdomain.com/test404abc) and check its title

This first step makes you aware of what type of title your 404 pages have, which is necessary to know for the next steps. For many Swedish sites, this title might look something like “page not found,” “404,” or something similar.

• Log in to Google Analytics and click on “Behavior,” then “Site Content,” and then “All Pages”

Next, choose “Page Title” as your primary dimension, as this will show you the titles for all pages visited on your site.

• Search in the Google Analytics search bar for the title you noted on your 404 pages

This search will show you aggregated data for all pages with the specified title.

• As the final step, click on the title tag you found in your search

This gives you access to a list of all the URLs that need to be fixed. Review the data and prioritize the pages/URLs with the most traffic.

(Note! Keep in mind that traffic can also be directed to 404s via internal links on your own site! This may mean that the data you see is somewhat misleading until you’ve made sure to fix all internal links on the site.)

How to fix 404s that drive traffic to your site

If you’ve made it this far, it’s time to tackle the 404s you’ve identified and fix them. Luckily, this isn’t particularly complicated.

Our recommendation is to either:

• Recreate the pages/URLs that previously existed on your site but now return a 404 status code

If the content is still relevant to your site/business, you have the opportunity to restore it on the pages/URLs that previously existed. By doing this, the pages become accessible again and valuable traffic—as well as any potential link equity—won’t be lost. However, be sure to review the pages to ensure the information is still accurate and relevant.

• Redirect the pages/URLs that previously existed on your site but now return a 404 status code

Be sure to use a 301 status code for these redirects and point them to the most relevant pages possible. This creates the best conditions for keeping both your visitors and any link equity. If there’s no relevant page available, our recommendation is to instead redirect one step up in the site’s hierarchy (Product / Service > Subcategory > Main Category > Index).