404 error in google URL status in instant indexing

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with the 404 error in Google URL status while using Rank Math’s instant indexing feature. A 404 error indicates that the requested URL does not exist on your website. This can happen if the page has been removed, the URL is incorrect, or there are broken links pointing to a non-existent page.

To resolve this issue, you can follow these steps:

1. Check the URL: Ensure that the URL you are trying to index is correct and that the page exists on your site.
2. Redirect Removed Pages: If the page has been moved or deleted, create a 301 redirect from the old URL to a new one to preserve any link equity. You can refer to our guide on how to fix 404 errors.
3. Fix Broken Links: Check for any internal or external links pointing to the missing page and update them accordingly.
4. Create a Custom 404 Page: Design a user-friendly 404 page that guides visitors to helpful content on your site.

If you continue to experience issues, please reply to this ticket with the specific URL that is returning the 404 error, and a human agent from our support team will assist you further.

Thank you for raising this concern!

Sources:
How to Fix Indexing Issues in Google Search Console » Rank Math

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us and sorry for any inconvenience that might have been caused due to that.

If you are getting the 404 error, it means that the URLs are not in the Indexing API. Since the API is only for two types of websites (job posting and live streams) and goes through rigorous spam detection due to recent changes in Google, it’s much more difficult to get URLs into the API.

So, unless you have one of the website types we mentioned and the content is unique, you won’t be able to use this feature consistently, and you shouldn’t, as the API was never intended for it, as mentioned in our own documentation.

Hope that helps and please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any other questions.