It is a status code the server returns when someone tries to open a web page that doesn't exist, such as a page that has been deleted or moved.

Do 404s really hurt my whole website's Google ranking?

As Google has officially confirmed, ordinary 404s do not hurt the overall ranking of the whole site. But an important page that is lost without a redirect loses the accumulated traffic it had.

How can I find broken links across my whole website?

Use Google Search Console to see page access error reports, or periodically click through your main menu and key links yourself.

What should I do when I find a broken link?

If the page is still relevant, set up a 301 redirect to the closest matching page. If it isn't relevant at all, design your 404 page to give customers a way forward instead.

Do 404s affect the backlinks I already have?

Yes. If a page with backlinks pointing to it becomes a 404 without a redirect, the value those backlinks passed along is lost too.

I'm running ads right now. How should I check my landing page links?

Click and test the landing page link used in your campaign before you start running ads every time, because a broken link there wastes your ad budget immediately.

Broken Links (404) on Your Website: How Much Do They Hurt Sales and SEO, and How to Find and Fix Them

Imagine a customer interested in one of your products. They click a link from an ad or a Google search result and land on a blank page saying "Page not found" or 404, instead of the product page they meant to see. Most people don't keep searching around the same site. They close the tab and go to a competitor instead.

Broken links and 404 pages are a problem many businesses don't realize their website has, because nobody tells them until the sale is already lost. This article explains what a 404 is, how much it really affects sales and SEO, and how to check for and fix broken links across your whole site in a systematic way.

What Is a 404, and What Causes It?

A 404 is a status code the server returns when someone tries to open a web page that no longer exists at that address. There are several common causes: a product page that was deleted without setting up a redirect, an internal link on your own site with a mistyped address, an older article linking to a page that was later moved, or even another website that used to link to yours but the page's address has since changed with no redirect in place.

The key point is that a 404 isn't the fault of the person who clicked the link. It comes from the website side not managing its page addresses completely, whether when deleting a page, moving a page, or doing a major restructure of the site.

What Does Google Say About How 404s Affect Search Rankings?

According to an official post from Google Search Central, ordinary 404 pages, such as pages that have genuinely been removed, do not hurt the overall ranking of the whole website. Google states clearly that having some 404 pages is normal for every website and is not a signal Google uses to penalize an entire site.

But it's important to separate the two cases. That applies to 404s that happen for a legitimate reason, not broken links caused by the website's own mistakes. If a site has many internal links pointing to pages that no longer exist, or an important page that once ranked well is deleted without a redirect, that page loses all the ranking and traffic it had built up. For more on checking page access errors, read Google Search Central's guide to troubleshooting Google Search crawling errors.

The Real Cost to Your Business Is Sales, Not Just SEO Ranking

Even though Google says ordinary 404s don't affect a site's overall ranking, the impact a business actually feels usually isn't about ranking. It's about sales lost right at the page. Picture a customer clicking a link from an ad campaign you're spending budget on and landing on a 404 instead of the product page. The ad money you paid to bring that person there is wasted immediately, because someone who clicked through can't do anything next.

Another common case is internal links on your own site that send customers the wrong way, such as a product menu that links to a product you no longer sell, or a "See more details" button pointing to a broken page. A customer in the middle of deciding to buy who hits a 404 usually doesn't try to find their way back. They just leave the site, and you lose a sale that was almost won.

What Else Causes Broken Links Besides Deleting Pages?

Besides deleting a page outright, broken links can come from other causes that many businesses don't think about.

Moving domains or changing URL structure without setting up redirects. When a business changes its domain name or restructures the whole site, all the old page addresses stop working immediately. If you haven't set up redirects from the old addresses to the new ones in advance, every link that was ever shared or bookmarked becomes a broken link at the same time.

Mistyped links in article content. A tiny error like one wrong character in a link address makes the link stop working right away. This is common in articles with many links.

Discontinued products or services whose pages were forgotten. For an online shop with frequent product turnover, if you delete the page of a discontinued product directly without redirecting it to a relevant category page, old links that once ranked or were saved by customers all become dead pages.

Broken Links Also Waste the Backlinks You Built

Another impact that is often overlooked is on backlinks, the links from other websites that point to your pages. If that page becomes a 404 with no redirect, the value those backlinks passed to the page disappears with it, even though good-quality backlinks usually take a lot of time and effort to earn. To learn more about backlinks and how to build them well, read Want to Rank on Page One of Google? Understanding Backlinks Correctly (2026 Edition).

Setting up redirects correctly doesn't just help customers who wander in. It also keeps the value of the backlinks you built flowing to the new page, instead of letting it go to waste along with the page that disappeared.

Check Your Whole Website for Broken Links

The most direct and systematic way is to use Google Search Console, which has reports showing pages Google tried to reach but hit errors on, including 404 pages Google already knew about. To learn how to set it up and read the reports, read What Is GSC (Google Search Console)? A Beginner's Guide for 2026.

Besides Google Search Console, manually clicking through important links from time to time, such as the main menu, CTA buttons, and links in your most popular articles, is a simple way to catch newly broken links faster than waiting for Google to detect them. Especially after a major website update or after deleting product pages, check the related links right away instead of waiting.

How to Fix a 404 Properly, Not Just Delete and Forget

When you find a broken link, the right fix isn't just to ignore it or delete the link. Think about whether people should still be able to reach that page. If the content is still relevant, set up a 301 redirect to the new page with the closest content, so both customers and Google reach the right destination instead of a dead end. For how to set up redirects correctly, especially when moving a domain or restructuring the whole site, read the full details in Moving Your Domain or Renaming Your Business: How to Set Up Redirects Without Losing Your Google Rankings.

If there is truly no relevant content left to redirect to, at least design your site's 404 page to be useful, for example with a menu back to the home page, a search box, or links to popular product categories, instead of a blank page with no way out for the customer. This reduces the chance that customers simply close the site.

How Does a 404 Relate to Your Website's Overall SEO?

Even though, as Google confirms, individual 404 pages don't directly penalize the whole site, having many broken links can still indirectly affect your overall SEO. Google has limited time and resources to crawl each website, known as the Crawl Budget. If a site has many broken links that Google has to keep revisiting, that resource gets spent on pages that don't exist instead of on collecting data from your new or updated pages. For an overview of ranking factors and SEO, read What Is SEO? A Complete Guide for Business Owners.

Which Businesses Lose the Most When a Website Has Many Broken Links?

Every website should handle broken links, but the real impact differs by type of business.

Online shops with frequent product turnover. This group is most likely to run into 404s, because products come and go all the time. Without a systematic way of managing old links, customers who click from old or saved links often hit dead pages.

Businesses that regularly run online ads. A broken link on the landing page used in a campaign means all the ad budget spent to bring people to that page is wasted immediately. The bigger the campaign budget, the clearer the damage.

Websites that have just moved domains or restructured. This group risks many broken links appearing all at once if redirects weren't planned before the move.

Content sites or blogs with many older articles. Older articles that used to rank well and get steady visits will slowly lose their accumulated traffic if they turn into broken links unnoticed, and the site owner may not notice.

A Checklist Before You Decide Your Website Is Free of Broken Links

Run through this list.

Do the main menu and key links on the home page work normally? Click every menu item and main CTA button once to confirm none of them lead to a broken page.
Have you ever deleted a product or service page without setting up a redirect? If so, go back and set up the redirects retroactively.
Is Google Search Console connected? If not, set it up so you can keep seeing page access error reports.
Does your 404 page give customers a way forward? For example, a link back to the home page or a search box, not a blank page.

Common Mistakes in Handling Broken Links

Besides the redirect issues covered above, there are other mistakes that come up often.

Redirecting every broken link to the home page indiscriminately. This is easy but off target. A customer who wanted a specific product and is sent to the home page may not find what they wanted and leave anyway. Redirect to the most relevant page you can instead.
Forgetting to check internal links after deleting or moving a page. You delete or move a page but forget to fix the other links on your site that pointed to it, leaving broken links inside your own website.
Leaving broken links for a long time because they seem unimportant. The longer they sit, the more sales you lose and the more your site's credibility may suffer in the eyes of customers who hit the problem repeatedly.
Never checking for broken links regularly. A site with a lot of content should have periodic check rounds, rather than waiting for customers to report a problem.

Summary

Broken links or 404 pages may look like a minor problem that's easy to overlook, but the real impact a business feels is sales lost right at the page, especially when it happens to links from ad campaigns or key product pages. Try checking your own website following the steps in this article. If you find broken links, they are not hard to fix and results can show up fairly quickly when handled the right way.

If you'd like our team to check your current website for broken links, or you're looking for a new website package with link and URL structure management built in from the start, see the details on the TumWebSME website package page.