Not found (404)
Google asked for these addresses and your server said they do not exist. For a page you removed, that is the right answer, and Google says so. The 404s worth your time are the ones your own site still points to.
What Google is telling you
Google’s help page says the page returned a 404 when requested, and that Google found the address without your asking: through a link from another page, or because the page existed once and was deleted. Googlebot will keep trying it for a while and less and less often; there is no way to make it forget an address.
The same page says 404s are not necessarily a problem when the page was removed with nothing to replace it, and recommends fixing only the ones you link to yourself or list in a sitemap. Google’s status code page adds that a 404 does not change how fast Google crawls the rest of the site.
Sort the list before fixing anything
| The address is… | What to do |
|---|---|
| A page you removed, with nothing to replace it | Nothing. 404, or 410, is the right answer. |
| A page that moved | A 301 redirect to where it lives now, as the help page says. |
| Linked from your own pages, or listed in your sitemap | Fix the link or the sitemap entry. This is the case Google recommends fixing. |
| A typo, or a made-up address, from another site | Nothing, unless people use it: then a redirect to the page they meant. |
| A page that should exist | Find out why it answers 404: a deleted page restored by mistake, a changed URL scheme, a route that broke. |
The report’s filter to the URLs in your sitemap is the fastest way to the second kind of 404: any address there is one you asked Google to index.
What the Trakis audit finds
The audit reports each 404 where its fix is, so a long list becomes a short one:
- Internal links to pages that do not exist, with the pages the links are on; a dead link in the menu or footer is one finding for the site (LINK-004).
- Sitemap entries that answer 404, the addresses still listed after the page was removed (CRAWL-010).
- Any other page that does not answer 200, with its code (CRAWL-002).
A page that says “not found” but answers 200 is the opposite problem, and worse: Soft 404.
Common questions
Do 404s hurt my rankings? Not by themselves. Google says they are not necessarily a problem, and a 404 does not slow its crawl of the rest of the site. A broken link costs the person who clicks it.
404 or 410? Google’s status code page says it treats every 4xx but 429 the same way. Use the one that fits; either takes the page out of the index.
Should I redirect every 404 to the home page? No. A redirect is for a page that has a replacement. Sending every missing address to the home page makes each of them answer 200 with a page nobody asked for. For a page that is gone, a 404 is the honest answer.
Why do removed pages stay in the report for months? Google keeps trying a known address for a while, less and less often, and says there is no way to make it forget one.
Check the whole site
The Trakis audit follows every internal link and reads the sitemap, and reports the dead ends your own site leads to, each problem once with the pages it covers. Create a free account and add your site, or see every Search Console status, explained.
Last changed 28 October 2026.