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404s

Every address that comes back "not found" is evidence: an old link on another site, a page that moved, a typo in a newsletter, a product that was taken down. SEO → 404s keeps a log of them, so a redirect can be made from what visitors actually asked for rather than guessed at. It matters most just after a move to a new site, which is also when nobody has time to go looking.

The 404s view: each address that was not found, with how many requests, when it was last asked for and where visitors came from, and a 'Redirect it' button

What it shows​

Column
AddressWhat was asked for, relative to the site.
RequestsHow many times. The most requested come first: fix those.
LastWhen it was last asked for.
Came fromThe page that linked to it, when the browser said. A link from another site is worth fixing at both ends: redirect it here, and ask them to update the link.

Redirect it opens Your redirects with the address filled in; add where it should go and save. A redirected address leaves the log. Ignore removes one row, and Empty the log removes them all.

What is left out​

So that the list is about real visitors and real pages:

  • Search engines and other bots: a crawler re-checking an old address is not news.
  • Scanner probes for files the site never had: .php, .env, backups, /wp-admin/….
  • Missing images, scripts, stylesheets and fonts: those are a theme or upload problem, not a page that moved.
  • Addresses answered by a 410 Gone rule.

Limits​

  • Kept for 90 days, and at most 2,000 addresses; the least requested go first.
  • Log pages not found switches it off, for a site that already logs 404s elsewhere.
  • A page cached by a full-page cache is served without WordPress running, so its 404s may not be logged. Most caches don't cache 404s.