{"id":115,"date":"2021-02-02T05:14:50","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T05:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoganhost.com.ng\/blog\/?p=115"},"modified":"2024-08-12T13:35:55","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T12:35:55","slug":"how-to-fix-error-404-not-found-on-your-wordpress-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoganhost.com.ng\/blog\/wordpress\/how-to-fix-error-404-not-found-on-your-wordpress-site\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Fix Error 404 Not Found on Your WordPress Site"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Of the many potential errors you might see on your WordPress site, Error 404 Not Found is one of the tamer ones. But that doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t frustrating when you or your visitors try to browse your site and keep running into the Error 404 Not Found message.\u00a0 That\u2019s the last thing you want first-time potential customers seeing from your brand. A 404 error can also be an indicator to you that something has changed or moved and a 301 redirect probably needs to be added for SEO.<\/p>\n

In this post, we\u2019re going to try to help you get your site working again by explaining a few things:<\/p>\n

What is the Error 404 Not Found?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Whenever you, or one of your visitors, visit your website, your browser sends a request to the web server and receives back data including something called an HTTP header. The HTTP header includes\u00a0HTTP status codes\u00a0to explain \u201cwhat happened\u201d with the request.<\/p>\n

Most of the time, the request works perfectly and you never actually see the HTTP status code (unless you go looking<\/em>). But if something\u00a0goes wrong<\/em>, your web browser will usually display a message with the HTTP status code to indicate the exact problem.<\/p>\n

Just like other error messages (500 error,\u00a0502 error,\u00a0504 error, etc.), the Error 404 Not Found message is the result of that process.<\/p>\n

What Does Error 404 Not Found Actually Mean?<\/span><\/h3>\n

Basically, it means that the client (your, or your visitor\u2019s, web browser<\/em>) was able to successfully connect to the host (your website\u2019s server<\/em>), but it was unable to find the actual resource that was requested (e.g. a specific URL or filename<\/em>).<\/p>\n

For example, if someone tries to access\u00a0yoursite.com\/post-name<\/code>\u00a0but you don\u2019t have any content with the slug\u00a0post-name<\/code>.\u00a0The visitor will then see a 404 error because, even though your web server is functioning normally, the resource that was requested doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just posts or pages either, any asset missing can generate a 404 error on the server, such as a missing image file, missing JavaScript, missing\u00a0CSS, etc.<\/p>\n

What Causes Error 404 Not Found on WordPress?<\/span><\/h3>\n

If you see this error on all of your site\u2019s content, it\u2019s typically due to an issue with your WordPress site\u2019s\u00a0permalinks. If you only see it on individual pieces of content, though, it\u2019s most likely because you changed a piece of content\u2019s slug without setting up a redirect.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the 404 error isn\u2019t always a bad thing \u2013\u00a0it\u2019s only bad when it\u2019s interfering with usability<\/strong>. And sometimes things are just out of your control!<\/p>\n

For example, sometimes a person might just type the wrong URL in their address bar. In that case, they\u2019ll still see a 404 error, but there\u2019s no actual problem with how your site is configured. This is actually the desired response, and you can create your own custom 404 page to help get visitors to the right spot (we\u2019ll show you how later on<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Error 404 Not Found Variations<\/span><\/h3>\n

Because different browsers display error messages differently, you might see a different message for this error. Other common variations include:<\/p>\n