A genuine 404 error — a page that’s actually gone, correctly reporting that it’s gone — isn’t a bug on its own, but leaving it unmapped wastes the traffic, links, and search equity that page used to hold. Mapping real 404s to the most relevant current destination recovers that rather than sending visitors and search engines into a dead end.
Check Search Console’s own list before assuming which pages are actually affected
In Search Console, under Pages, look at the “Not found (404)” section. This shows exactly which URLs Google has actually encountered as 404s, which is a far more reliable starting point than guessing based on your own site’s navigation.
404 mapping & redirect implementation
Confirmed 404s from Search Console mapped to their most relevant current destination.
- Full backup taken before we start
- If we can’t fix it, you get your money back
- We never ask for your own password
This or something else?
| You have known, confirmed 404 errors that need mapping to appropriate redirects | This fix covers it |
| You want a single, one-off redirect set up, not a batch of mapped 404s | Single redirect setup |
| You have a supplied list or spreadsheet of URLs to redirect already prepared | Bulk redirect import from supplied map |
| The issue is a redirect chain or loop, not unmapped 404s | Redirect chain & loop cleanup |
What you are seeing
- Search Console reporting a list of confirmed 404 errors
- Visitors or analytics data showing traffic to now-missing pages
- External links pointing at pages that no longer exist
- The 404s possibly stemming from a specific past deletion or reorganisation
Common causes
- Content deleted without a redirect set up to a relevant replacement
- A category or product reorganisation leaving old URLs unmapped
- A migration that didn’t carry forward a complete redirect map
- Old campaign or externally-linked URLs pointing at pages long since removed
- A page taken down temporarily for editing or a seasonal promotion, then never restored or redirected once it stayed down for good
What we do
- Pull the confirmed list of 404 errors from Search Console
- Determine the most relevant current destination for each, based on your input where the mapping isn’t obvious
- Implement redirects from each 404 URL to its determined destination
- Verify each redirect resolves correctly
- Submit affected URLs for re-crawling where appropriate
- Provide a written summary of what was mapped and where
What is included
- Confirmed 404 URLs mapped to appropriate redirect destinations
- Verified, working redirects
- Re-crawl requests submitted where appropriate
- A written summary of the mapping
Not included
- Deciding which content strategically should exist to replace what’s gone — we map to the most relevant existing page, we don’t create new content
- Redirect chain or loop cleanup, a separate, related fix if that’s a different issue
- Bulk import from an already-prepared redirect map, a separate, related fix
- Ongoing mapping as new content is deleted in future
Questions about this fix
Does every 404 need a redirect, or is it sometimes correct to just leave it as gone?
Not every 404 needs mapping — content with no reasonably relevant replacement and no meaningful traffic or links pointing at it is sometimes genuinely fine left as an honest 404 rather than redirected somewhere unrelated just to avoid the error.
How do you decide where an old page should redirect to?
We look for the most relevant current page based on the original content's topic, and check with you directly where the right destination isn't obvious, rather than guessing or defaulting everything to the homepage.
Will this recover the search rankings the old page used to have?
It can help recover some of that value by directing relevant signal to a live, related page, though a redirect isn't a guaranteed, complete substitute for the original page's specific ranking history.
What if I don't actually know why a page is showing as a 404?
That's fine — Search Console's own report confirms the fact of the error regardless of the original cause, and mapping it to a sensible destination doesn't require knowing exactly how it happened.
Is redirecting everything to my homepage a reasonable shortcut?
Generally not — a redirect to an unrelated destination like the homepage is a poor substitute for a relevant page, and search engines can treat an excessive pattern of homepage redirects as a weaker signal than a genuinely relevant one.
Related fixes
If this is the second time this year
A bad update breaking the site is a symptom of updates not being tested first. Care plans run every update on a staging clone before it reaches your live site, which is the actual fix for this happening again.
Your access, your rules
Create a separate admin account for us and delete it when we are done. For anything else, we get in touch and agree a method — never a form field on this site, never by reply to an email.
We back up first, always
Before anything is touched we take a full backup and keep it for 30 days. If a fix goes wrong, we put the site back exactly as it was.
If it is not what you bought
If the problem turns out smaller than what you ordered, we refund the difference. If it is bigger, we stop and send a quote before doing any extra work.
If we cannot fix it
You get back what we received. Diagnosis is on us — you only pay when the problem is actually solved. The payment processor takes its fee before the money reaches us, so we never hold it and it is not ours to return. That is true here as everywhere else.
If it comes back
Reply within seven days of delivery and we put it back on the bench at no cost. The fix is not finished until it holds.
What we are responsible for
If something goes wrong with a fix, our responsibility is limited to what you paid for it. We take a full backup first so mistakes can be undone, and we tell you before doing anything outside what you bought.