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November 08, 2005
What can you do about URLs that we tried to crawl but couldn't because we received a
404 (not found) error? (You can
see these
once you've verified your site by clicking the stats link beside the Sitemap name on the
My Sitemaps page.)
You don't have to do anything about them. We'll continue to crawl and index your site and
will simply skip pages that return a 404. But here are some things you can
do.
If we found the URLs from your Sitemap, the fix is simple. Just modify your Sitemap to list the
correct pages and resubmit it.
If we found the URLs by following links, the fix isn't quite as easy. In fact, in some cases,
there may be no fix. A webmaster may have liked your site and tried to link to it, but mistyped
the URL. You can look for sites that link to your pages and ask webmasters to fix any broken
links, but if that sounds like a lot of work, you can instead just focus on your own site.
Check the links in your site
You may not be able to control inbound links from other sites, but you can control internal links.
Make sure that none of these broken links are coming from your site. You can generally check your
webserver logs to see what visitors clicked on in your site that returned 404 errors.
If the links are outdated
It could be that a link points to a non-existent page because that page used to exist, but no
longer does. In that case, you can:
Make sure that your site doesn't link to any outdated pages
Check to see if any of these outdated pages are in the Google index
If the page used to exist, but no longer does, it might still be listed in the Google index. (You
can check this by doing a Google search for the URL.) If it is, you can either wait for
subsequent crawls (if we continue to get 404 errors when we try to crawl it, it will eventually
be removed), or you can
request its removal using our
automatic URL removal system.
In order to use this system, the outdated page must return a 404 (and if the URL is
showing up on your Sitemaps Stats page, it already does). Log in and then choose the
Remove an outdated link option. Type in the URL,choose
anything associated with this URL and click Remove outdated link. The link will
show up in a status area as pending. The page should be removed from the index within 3-5 days
and the status will be updated.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle Search Console reports 404 errors for URLs Googlebot couldn't access.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can ignore these errors, fix Sitemap URLs, or investigate and fix links for pages Google found by following links.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor outdated content, remove internal links, check Google's index, and consider requesting removal if necessary.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle eventually removes pages with consistent 404 errors from its index.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["When encountering `404` errors for crawled URLs, no action is mandatory, but several fixes are possible. If the URL is from a sitemap, update and resubmit the sitemap. For URLs found via links, correct internal links on your site, and consider contacting external site owners to fix theirs. If a page is outdated and indexed, remove it via the automatic URL removal system if it returns a `404` error. This system will clear the index entry in a few days.\n"],null,["November 08, 2005\n\n\nWhat can you do about URLs that we tried to crawl but couldn't because we received a\n`404 (not found)` error? (You can\n[see these](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9008080#notfound)\nonce you've verified your site by clicking the **stats** link beside the Sitemap name on the\nMy Sitemaps page.)\n\n\nYou don't *have* to do anything about them. We'll continue to crawl and index your site and\nwill simply skip pages that return a `404`. But here are some things you *can*\ndo.\n\n\nIf we found the URLs from your Sitemap, the fix is simple. Just modify your Sitemap to list the\ncorrect pages and resubmit it.\n\n\nIf we found the URLs by following links, the fix isn't quite as easy. In fact, in some cases,\nthere may be no fix. A webmaster may have liked your site and tried to link to it, but mistyped\nthe URL. You can look for sites that link to your pages and ask webmasters to fix any broken\nlinks, but if that sounds like a lot of work, you can instead just focus on your own site.\n\nCheck the links in your site\n\n\nYou may not be able to control inbound links from other sites, but you can control internal links.\nMake sure that none of these broken links are coming from your site. You can generally check your\nwebserver logs to see what visitors clicked on in your site that returned 404 errors.\n\nIf the links are outdated\n\n\nIt could be that a link points to a non-existent page because that page used to exist, but no\nlonger does. In that case, you can:\n\n- Make sure that your site doesn't link to any outdated pages\n- Check to see if any of these outdated pages are in the Google index\n\n\nIf the page used to exist, but no longer does, it might still be listed in the Google index. (You\ncan check this by doing a Google search for the URL.) If it is, you can either wait for\nsubsequent crawls (if we continue to get `404` errors when we try to crawl it, it will eventually\nbe removed), or you can\n[request its removal](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/remove-information) using our\n[automatic URL removal system](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/remove-information).\n\n\nIn order to use this system, the outdated page must return a `404` (and if the URL is\nshowing up on your Sitemaps Stats page, it already does). Log in and then choose the\n**Remove an outdated link** option. Type in the URL,choose\n**anything associated with this URL** and click **Remove outdated link**. The link will\nshow up in a status area as pending. The page should be removed from the index within 3-5 days\nand the status will be updated.\n\nPosted by [Vanessa Fox](https://www.vanessafox.com/)"]]
