A 404 or ‘Not Found’ message on websites is a standard response code to notify the user that the server was unable to find what was requested. Usually, this means the user has typed the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of its contents (image or page) incorrectly. Sometimes the 404 error is due to the server not running, or because its connection to the requested computer has broken.
Web developers need to be careful when allowing anything other than letters and numbers in the CMS URL creation. If you have an apostrophe in an article title which the CMS turns into a hyphenated link, it would most likely fail. If you’re looking to gain high Google rankings, then you need to make sure you have no broken links on your website. This will lead to search engines presuming your site is not well maintained, so you will be ranked lower – some even stop ranking your site all together.
How to fix a 404 error on WordPress
If you are seeing 404 errors on your website, most of the time the link or URL has been typed incorrectly. It’s best to check all links on your website to find the culprit. Once you have found the problem link, you need to edit that page or post and type the URL correctly. Before publishing that page or post, check the link yourself in a separate browser window to make sure you’re not also seeing a 404 error.
Fun fact: in a study carried out by the telecoms division of Royal Mail, they found that “404” became a slang synonym for “clueless” here in the UK.