Hello,
We apologize for the issue you are facing with the 404 error and instant indexing on your site. A "Not Found (404)" error occurs when a user or Googlebot tries to access a URL that does not exist. 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 address the 404 error, you can follow these steps:
- Redirect Removed Pages: If the page has moved, create a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. This helps preserve any link equity from the old URL. You can refer to our guide on how to do this.
- Fix Broken Links: Check internal and external links pointing to the missing page and update them accordingly. If possible, reach out to the sites linking to your deleted pages and request an update to the correct URL.
- Create a Custom 404 Page: Design a user-friendly 404 page that guides visitors to helpful content on your site. Include links to popular posts or a search bar to help users find what they want.
You can also check the affected pages in Google Search Console by clicking on the error message to identify which URLs are causing the issue.
For more detailed guidance, please refer to our article on fixing Google indexing issues here.
If you have already tried these steps and are still experiencing issues, please reply to this ticket, and a human agent from the Rank Math Support team will assist you further.
Thank you for raising this concern!
Hello,
We have released a fix in the latest version of the Instant Indexing plugin.
Please update it on your site and check if the issue persists:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/fast-indexing-api/#developers
Let us know how this goes.
Thanks for your assistance dear Reinelle, however, issue still persist after downloading and updating to the plug-in to the version you suggested. It says error 404. Entity requested not found. Fo kindly assist
Hello,
Can you please confirm if you’re getting the error while trying to Get Status? If so, before requesting to get the status, please try to submit the URL in Publish/Update URL first as Google isn’t aware of the URL. Once done, please check the URL again with Get URL Status.
Let us know how it goes. Looking forward to helping you.
Thank you.
Thanks for your support; when I submit the url it says successor; however, when I check the url status, it’s error 404– entity requested not found
Hello,
It’s important to emphasize that the situation with the “Get status” returning a 404 error happens when the URL being tested was not previously submitted to the Indexing API.
So, you need to first submit it, and wait for Google to parse it and only then you can request the status for the URL.
Thank you.
Hello,
Since we did not hear back from you for 15 days, we are assuming that you found the solution. We are closing this support ticket.
If you still need assistance or any other help, please feel free to open a new support ticket, and we will be more than happy to assist.
Thank you.
