The important question is not whether your website has any 404 URLs. The better question is: Why does that URL return 404, and is there still a useful page that should replace it?
This distinction is important because broken links and non-existent URLs are not exactly the same thing. A website can have thousands of URLs that never existed without having a broken-link problem. On the other hand, one important product page returning 404 while your own website still links to it is something you should fix.
What Is a Broken Link?
A broken link is a link that points to a URL that no longer works or cannot be accessed as expected. For example, suppose your website has a product category at /products/bed-linen/. Later, you remove or rename that page, but your homepage, navigation menu, or blog articles still contain links to the old URL.
A visitor clicking that link may see a 404 page instead of the content they expected. This is an internal broken link.
Internal broken links are worth fixing because they create unnecessary friction for users and make it harder for search engines to discover and understand your website structure.
Is Every 404 Error a Problem?
No. A 404 Not Found response simply means that the requested URL does not currently exist. That can be perfectly normal.
For example, someone might visit a URL such as /abc123/ even though your website has never had such a page. There is no reason to create a page just because the URL appears in a report.
If the URL has no useful content, no valuable backlinks, no meaningful organic traffic, and no relevant replacement page, it can simply remain a 404.
The goal of SEO is therefore not to eliminate every 404 URL. The goal is to make sure important pages are available, internal links work correctly, and valuable old URLs are handled properly.
When an Internal Link Points to a 404 Page
This is one of the clearest situations where you should take action.
Imagine that your website still contains this link:
/products/bed-linen/
But the page has been removed and now returns 404.
If the page has been replaced by another relevant page, update the internal link to point to the new URL. If the original content has been merged into another page, link to that page instead. If the content has been permanently removed and there is no meaningful replacement, remove the internal link altogether.
What you should avoid is leaving a large number of internal links pointing to pages that no longer exist.
When Should You Use a 301 Redirect?
A 301 redirect is useful when an old URL has been replaced by a new page that serves a similar purpose.
For example, suppose your old website used:
/hotel-linen/
After restructuring the website, the relevant page becomes:
/products/bed-linen/
If the new page is a relevant replacement, you can redirect the old URL:
/hotel-linen/ → 301 → /products/bed-linen/
This helps visitors who still use the old URL reach the appropriate content. It can also help preserve the SEO value associated with the old URL when there are useful external links, rankings, or traffic pointing to it.
For B2B websites, this is particularly important when products, categories, or website structures change during a redesign or migration.
When Should a 404 Stay as a 404?
Not every old or incorrect URL needs a redirect.
Consider a URL such as:
/abc123/
If this page never existed, has no valuable backlinks, receives no meaningful organic traffic, and has no relevant replacement, there is no reason to redirect it to another page.
In this situation, a normal 404 response with a useful custom 404 page is perfectly reasonable.
A good 404 page can explain that the requested page could not be found and give visitors useful next steps, such as returning to the homepage, browsing products, viewing services, or contacting the company.
Do Not Redirect Every 404 to the Homepage
One common mistake is creating a redirect rule that sends every missing URL to the homepage.
For example:
/wrong-page/ → 301 → /
This may look convenient, but it does not necessarily make sense. If the old URL has no meaningful relationship with the homepage, sending visitors there does not provide a useful replacement for the content they requested.
More importantly, you should avoid making large numbers of non-existent URLs return 200 OK with homepage content. This can create what is commonly referred to as a Soft 404: the server technically returns a successful response, but the page does not actually provide the content associated with the requested URL.
For a genuinely non-existent page with no suitable replacement, returning a proper 404 is usually the cleaner solution.
How to Handle 404 URLs on a B2B Website
For a B2B website such as a hotel linen or hotel supplies website, I would not treat every 404 in Google Search Console as something that needs a redirect. Instead, I would classify the URLs before taking action.
Category A: The URL has a clear replacement.
For example, an old product category has been replaced by a new product category with essentially the same purpose. In this case, use a 301 redirect to the most relevant new page.
Category B: The website still links to the 404 URL.
This is an internal broken link. Find the links in your navigation, product pages, articles, buttons, and other website sections, then update them to the correct URL or remove them if there is no relevant destination.
Category C: The URL has no value and no replacement.
Leave it as a normal 404. There is no need to create an unnecessary page or redirect it to the homepage simply to make the 404 report look cleaner.
How to Find Important 404 Errors
For SEO maintenance, Google Search Console is one of the first places I would check.
Go to:
Google Search Console → Indexing → Pages → Not found (404)
You will see URLs that Google has encountered but that currently return a 404 response.
Do not immediately redirect all of them. Review each important URL and ask a few simple questions:
- Did this page exist before?
- Is there a new page that replaces it?
- Does another page contain the same or very similar content?
- Does the website still contain internal links to this URL?
- Does the URL have valuable organic traffic?
- Does it have useful external backlinks?
- Is there any business reason to keep this URL accessible?
These questions are more useful than simply trying to reduce the number of URLs listed under 404.
404 Errors During a Website Migration
404 issues deserve particular attention when you redesign or migrate a website.
During a migration, URLs often change because the website structure, categories, product names, or CMS configuration changes. If the old URLs are simply deleted, users and search engines may continue to encounter them.
Before launching a new website, make a list of important old URLs and map them to their new destinations. Important URLs with relevant replacements should receive 301 redirects.
After the migration, check Google Search Console and crawl the new website again. This makes it easier to identify missing redirects, broken internal links, and unexpected 404 pages.
Why Internal Linking Matters
Broken links are not only a technical issue. They are also part of your website’s overall information architecture.
A strong B2B website should make it easy for users and search engines to move between related pages. For example:
Blog article → Product category → Product page → Contact / Request a Quote
If one of those links points to a 404 page, the journey is interrupted.
This is why fixing broken internal links should be part of regular technical SEO maintenance. It is not necessary to obsess over every 404 URL, but important pages and important navigation paths should work correctly.
What Is the Right 404 Strategy?
The right strategy is actually quite simple:
Important old URL with a relevant replacement → 301 redirect.
Internal link pointing to a 404 → Fix or remove the internal link.
Completely invalid URL with no value or replacement → Keep a proper 404.
This approach is much better than trying to make every URL return a successful response.
Final Thoughts
A website having 404 URLs does not automatically mean that its SEO is broken. A 404 is simply the correct response when a requested page does not exist.
What matters is whether the 404 represents a genuine problem. If an important page was accidentally removed, fix it. If an old URL has valuable traffic or backlinks and has a relevant replacement, use a 301 redirect. If your own website still links to a missing page, update the internal link. If the URL has never had any value and has no appropriate replacement, let it remain a 404.
The goal is not to have zero 404 errors. The goal is to have a website where important pages are accessible, internal links are healthy, valuable old URLs are properly redirected, and genuinely non-existent URLs return the correct response.
If you are optimizing a B2B website, this should be part of your regular technical SEO audit, together with indexing, redirects, sitemap, robots.txt, page speed, and internal linking.
Learn more about Orangeeweb’s Google SEO services or contact us to discuss your B2B website SEO strategy.
