Broken links, 404s and redirects explained

Last updated 10 October 2026 · By the XKey team

What the status codes mean

• 200 OK – the page loaded normally.
• 301 Moved Permanently – the page has a new permanent address. Search engines move it to the new URL and pass along its signals.
• 302 Found / 307 Temporary Redirect – the page is somewhere else for now. Google treats a long-standing temporary redirect much like a permanent one, but 301 is clearer when a move is permanent.
• 404 Not Found – nothing exists at this address.
• 410 Gone – the page has been removed deliberately. Google drops it slightly faster than a 404.
• 5xx – a server error. If these persist, Google slows down crawling and may drop pages.

Do 404 errors hurt SEO?

Not on their own. Google has said 404s for pages that genuinely no longer exist are normal and don't count against the rest of your site. They matter when:

• your own pages link to them – visitors hit a dead end, and Google wastes time crawling nothing;
• other websites link to them – any value from those links is lost; or
• an important page is broken by mistake – it drops out of Google.

Soft 404s

A soft 404 is a page that returns "200 OK" but is empty, says "not found", or is a thin "no results" page. Google treats it as an error anyway and reports it in Search Console. Fix it by returning a real 404 or 410, redirecting to a genuinely relevant page, or adding proper content.

When to redirect and when to let a page 404

Redirect with a 301 when there's a close replacement – the renamed page, the new version of a product or the category it belonged to. Don't redirect everything to your home page; Google often treats that as a soft 404 and visitors find it confusing. If there's truly no equivalent, a helpful 404 page with a search box and links to your main sections is the right answer.

Redirect chains

A chain is when page A redirects to B, which redirects to C. Each hop adds delay, and Google stops following after several hops. Chains usually build up through redesigns – http to https, then non-www to www, then an old URL to a new one. Point every old address straight at its final destination, and update your internal links to use the final URL directly.

How to find broken links

• Check any single page with the broken link checker.
• Crawl up to 250 pages with the website audit to find broken internal links, redirect chains and the pages linking to them.
• In Google Search Console, the Pages report lists URLs that are "Not found (404)" or "Soft 404", and the Links report shows which of your pages other sites link to most.

Prevent them in the first place

Before changing a page's address, set up the redirect at the same time. After a redesign, crawl the old sitemap against the new site to make sure every old URL lands somewhere sensible. And turn on weekly monitoring so a broken key page doesn't go unnoticed for months.

Frequently asked questions

How many redirects is too many?

Ideally one hop from the old address to the new one. Two is fine; long chains slow pages down and risk Google giving up before the end.

Should I use a 404 or a 410 for deleted pages?

Either works. A 410 tells Google the removal is deliberate and can get the page dropped a little faster.

Do redirects lose SEO value?

A 301 to a closely matching page keeps nearly all of it. Redirecting to an unrelated page, such as the home page, loses most of it.