404 Error Monitoring

Automatically detect, track, and fix broken links on your website

How 404 Monitoring Works

ProRank SEO's 404 Monitor automatically tracks every 404 (Page Not Found) error that occurs on your website. It captures valuable data about broken links, helping you quickly identify and fix issues that could harm user experience and SEO rankings.

Automatic Detection Process

Error Capture:When a visitor or bot encounters a 404 error, it's instantly logged
Data Collection:Records URL, timestamp, referrer, user agent, and IP address
Smart Grouping:Groups similar 404s together and tracks hit frequency
Redirect Suggestions:Uses similarity matching to suggest likely redirect targets when enabled
One-Click Fix:Create redirects directly from the 404 monitor interface

404 Monitor Dashboard

Access the 404 Monitor by navigating to ProRank SEO → Technical SEO → Redirect Manager → 404 Monitor tab.

Dashboard Metrics

Total 404 URLs

Unique URLs returning 404

Total Hits

Combined 404 occurrences

Resolved

404s with redirects created

Auto-Suggested

404s with suggested targets

404 Error List

Information Captured

The 404 monitor table displays the following columns for each tracked URL:

Table Columns

• URL — the path that returned 404
• Hits — total occurrence count (colour-coded by severity)
• First Hit — when this 404 was first seen
• Last Hit — most recent occurrence
• Referrer — the page that linked to the 404 URL
• Status — Unresolved or Resolved

Stored Data

• User agent string
• IP address
• Auto-suggested target URL (if enabled)
• Similarity score for suggestions
• Linked redirect ID (when resolved)

Smart Redirect Suggestions

Automatic Suggestion Algorithm

When auto-suggest is enabled, ProRank extracts keywords from the 404 URL, searches published posts and pages for matches, and scores candidates using Levenshtein string-distance. Suggestions with a similarity score above 70% are shown in the 404 table alongside the error entry.

How It Works

404 URL: /blog/seo-tipps-2024
1. Extract keywords: "blog", "seo", "tipps", "2024"
2. Query published posts/pages with matching slugs or titles
3. Score top 10 candidates by Levenshtein distance
4. If best match > 70%: show suggestion with score

Result: /blog/seo-tips-2024 (92% match)

Auto-suggest is off by default. Enable it in the 404 Monitor settings. Suggestions appear in the URL column with a similarity percentage.

Creating Redirects from 404s

Quick Fix Process

Review 404 List:Sort by hits to prioritize high-traffic broken links
Create Redirect:Click "Create Redirect" on any 404 entry. If a suggestion exists, it is used as the target; otherwise enter a target URL manually. A 301 redirect is created and the 404 is marked as resolved.
Or Mark Resolved:Click "Mark Resolved" to dismiss a 404 without creating a redirect (e.g. for intentionally deleted content).

Filtering and Sorting

Available Filters

Status Filter

• All
• Unresolved
• Resolved

Min Hits

Filter to 404s with at least N hits to focus on high-impact errors.

Search

Full-text search across URL, referrer, and user agent fields.

Scanner Traffic

Toggle "Show scanner/probe traffic" to include or hide bot-generated 404s (e.g. /.env, /wp-admin/install.php). Hidden by default.

Sort Options

Sort by hits, last seen, created date, URL, or status (ascending or descending).

Per-Entry Actions

Actions for Each 404 Entry

Create Redirect

Create a 301 redirect and mark the 404 as resolved

Mark Resolved

Dismiss the entry without creating a redirect

Delete

Remove the 404 record entirely

Common 404 Patterns

WordPress Specific

/wp-content/uploads/2023/* → Media files moved
/category/uncategorized/* → Default category removed
/?p=123 → Old permalink structure
/feed/ → RSS feed disabled
/trackback/ → Trackback disabled

Common File Types

favicon.ico → Missing favicon
robots.txt → Before virtual robots enabled
sitemap.xml → Before sitemap enabled
.map files → Source map files for JS/CSS
.well-known/* → Security/verification files

Bot Scanning

/admin/ → Security scanners
/wp-admin/install.php → Hack attempts
/.env → Looking for exposed credentials
/backup.sql → Database fishing
/old/ → Common backup directories

404 Prevention Tips

Proactive Measures

Before Publishing

✓ Check all internal links
✓ Verify image paths
✓ Test downloadable files
✓ Validate external links

Before Deleting

✓ Check for incoming links
✓ Set up redirect first
✓ Update internal links
✓ Notify external linkers

Regular Maintenance

✓ Weekly 404 review
✓ Monthly link audit
✓ Check Search Console
✓ Monitor high-traffic pages

Auto-Prevention

✓ Auto-redirect when a post slug changes
✓ Auto-redirect when a post is deleted (if enabled)

Settings & Configuration

Data Retention

• Resolved entries older than the retention period (default 90 days) are cleaned up daily via WP-Cron
• Unresolved entries with 2 or fewer hits are cleaned up after 30 days

Monitoring Options

• Enable/disable 404 monitoring
• Enable/disable auto-suggest redirects
• Alert threshold — admin notice when a single URL exceeds N hits (default 50)
• Exclusion rules — contains, exact, starts_with, ends_with, or regex patterns to ignore specific URLs
• Built-in noise filter for known scanner/probe paths (wp-admin probes, .env, .git, etc.)

Important Considerations

Performance Impact: Logging every 404 can impact database size. Configure retention settings and use ignore patterns for known false positives.

Security Scans: Many 404s come from security scanners looking for vulnerabilities. These are normal and can be safely ignored.

SEO Benefit: Fixing 404s improves user experience and helps maintain link equity, leading to better search rankings.

Managing Redirects

Learn how to create and manage redirects

Troubleshooting

Fix common redirect and 404 issues