404 Page

A 404 (Not Found) status code indicates that the server cannot find a resource at the requested URL. A custom 404 page can guide visitors when they reach a non-existent URL, but the HTTP status should remain 404 — not a soft redirect or a 200 'page not found' page.

Why it matters: A helpful 404 page should explain that the page was not found, provide navigation back to the site, and offer a search box or popular links — without returning a 200 status code. Use 301 redirects for URLs that genuinely moved, and monitor 404 traffic in Search Console to find broken internal or external links that need fixing. Too many irrelevant 404s can signal poor maintenance, but a reasonable number of genuine 404s is normal.