questions about 404 error

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing regarding 404 pages. It’s great to hear that you’re self-learning WordPress and building your website!

To address your questions:

1. Permanently Deleting 404 Pages: You cannot delete 404 pages in the traditional sense because a 404 page is simply a response indicating that a page does not exist. However, you can remove the URLs from your site by ensuring they are not linked anywhere and by setting up proper redirects if necessary. This way, when users or search engines try to access those URLs, they will receive a 404 response.

2. Removing 404 Pages from Google Search: While you cannot delete 404 pages from Google Search directly, you can use the URL Removal Tool in Google Search Console to temporarily hide URLs from search results. However, this is not a permanent solution, and the URLs may reappear if they are still accessible on your site. The best practice is to ensure that these URLs return a proper 404 status code and are not linked anywhere on your site.

3. Impact of Deleting 404 Pages: Generally, having 404 pages does not negatively impact your website’s SEO as long as they are properly managed. It’s important to ensure that any important content is redirected appropriately to maintain user experience and link equity. If the 404 pages are old or irrelevant, it’s better to let them remain as 404s rather than redirecting them to unrelated content.

For more detailed guidance on managing 404 errors, you can refer to our article on monitoring 404 errors.

If you have any further questions or need assistance, feel free to reply to this ticket, and a human agent from the Rank Math Support team will assist you further. Thank you for raising your concern!