SEO check
404 page
Requests a random path on the site that shouldn’t exist and looks at the status code the server returns.
- Category
- SEO
- Importance
- Medium importance
- Check id
- not-found-page
How the result is decided
- PassHTTP 404 or 410.
- WarningThe missing URL redirects somewhere (for example to the homepage), or returns another non-2xx status.
- FailHTTP 200: a “soft 404” that tells search engines the error page is a real page.
- InfoThe request couldn’t be made (timeout or network error).
“Info” results don’t count toward the score.
Why it matters
When missing pages answer with 200, search engines can index error pages and waste crawling on them. Redirecting every missing URL to the homepage is treated the same way.
How to fix it
Configure your server or CMS to send a 404 status with your error page. Keep the page helpful (search, popular links), but keep the status code honest.
After the fix, open the page’s report and choose Run again to confirm it passes.