Many people don’t know the difference between 404 and 301. If you are in the Web development or SEO field, you must have to know about this. It’s important to understand the difference between 404 and 301. Although these two codes seem like technical words. It can impact your website’s user experience and website rankings.
In this article, we’ll explain these codes and their importance.
404 – Page Not Found:
404 (Page Not Found) is one of the most common errors on the internet. When a user visits a page that doesn’t exist or has been removed, the server responds with a 404 error (Page Not Found). This means it tells the user and search engines that the requested resource cannot be located. If you don’t know how to find 404 page errors, you can find it from the search console or you can also use a free third party tool like Broken link Check.
Here are some critical points about 404 errors:
- User Experience: From a user perspective, facing a 404 error can be frustrating. It’s like hitting a dead end while visiting a website. Users may leave your site if they repeatedly visit these errors.
- SEO Impact: Search engines note 404 errors when crawling your site. While having a few 404 errors is expected, an excessive number can negatively affect your SEO. Monitoring and fixing broken links is essential to maintain a healthy website.
- Best Practice: When a page is permanently removed, it’s best to use a 301 redirect instead of a 404 error to guide users and search engines to the new location of the content. Make sure the redirect page should be relevant to that page.
301 – Moved Permanently (Redirection):
The HTTP status code 301 is a redirection status code. It indicates that the requested resource has been permanently moved to a new location. When a user or search engine encounters a 301 status code, they are automatically redirected to the new URL specified by the server.
Here are some key points about 301 redirects:
- User Experience: From a user perspective, 301 redirects are seamless. Users are automatically taken to the new location without any effort on their part. This helps maintain a positive user experience.
- SEO Impact: Search engines interpret 301 redirects as a signal that the old URL should be replaced with the new one in their index. This passes the SEO value (such as link juice and rankings) from the old page to the new one.
- Best Practice: Use 301 redirects when you change the URL structure of your website or when you permanently move or replace content. It’s a powerful tool for maintaining SEO equity and ensuring users find the correct information.
Conclusion:
Basically, a 404 error means the page you’re looking for doesn’t exist, which isn’t good for users and search engines. And with 301 redirection we can move permanently to a new page or URL, so users and search engines can find it easily. Using these codes correctly is super important for a better user experience and good search engine results.
