No matter what algorithm update Google releases, its ultimate goal will always be to deliver the best, most reliable results possible to searchers. With this in mind, it is understandable as to why having 404 errors present on your website would negatively impact your SEO efforts. Webmasters who utilize
Google Webmaster Tools will be notified via email if they discover errors like these when crawling any given page, and plugins like
All-In-One SEO can also help as well.
Regardless of how 404 errors are discovered, the important thing is that they are fixed in a timely manner. This can easily be done by installing the
301 Redirects plugin or something similar, which will allow you to add the URLs of all dead pages and instead point that traffic elsewhere – hence the name “redirect.” When you’ve finished inserting all of the 404 errors, alert Google that the updates have been made and that they should crawl your website again. Resolving problems such as these is easy to do, but will go a long way in improving your marketing performance for both humans and search engines alike.