Why Your Website Is Returning a 404 Not Found Error and How to Fix It

Summary

This guide helps you troubleshoot and resolve: Why Your Website Is Returning a 404 Not Found Error and How to Fix It. Follow the steps below to fix the issue.

Common Causes

A 404 Not Found error means your web server is reachable, but it cannot locate the specific page or file requested by the visitor. This is one of the most common website issues for small businesses and home offices. While the error can be frustrating, it is usually caused by a missing file, a mistyped URL, a broken link, incorrect file permissions, or a DNS misconfiguration. This guide walks you through diagnosing and resolving 404 errors so your customers can access your content again.

Quick Fix Steps

1. Refresh the page in your browser to rule out a temporary loading issue.
2. Check the URL in the address bar for typos, missing slashes, or incorrect capitalisation.
3. Clear your browser cache and cookies, then try accessing the site again.
4. Test the website on a different device or network to see if the error is localised to your computer.
5. Confirm your domain name is active and has not expired with your registrar.

Detailed Instructions

Check for Missing or Moved Pages

1. Log in to your website's content management system (such as WordPress, Joomla, or your website builder dashboard).
2. Navigate to the page or post that is returning the 404 error.
3. Verify the page is published and not set to draft, private, or password-protected.
4. If you recently changed the page URL, check whether a redirect was created to send visitors from the old address to the new one.
5. If the page was deleted, either restore it from a backup or set up a 301 redirect to a relevant existing page.

Inspect File Permissions

1. Access your hosting control panel or connect to your web server using an FTP client such as FileZilla.
2. Locate the folder containing your website files, commonly public_html or www.
3. Right-click the missing file or folder and select file permissions.
4. Ensure folders are set to 755 and files are set to 644. Incorrect permissions can prevent the web server from reading the file.
5. Apply the changes and refresh your website to test.

Review DNS and Domain Settings

1. Log in to your domain registrar's control panel.
2. Confirm the domain's nameservers point to your current hosting provider.
3. Check the A record for your root domain and the CNAME record for www to ensure they resolve to the correct web server IP address.
4. If you recently changed DNS records, allow up to 24–48 hours for propagation across Australian and global networks.
5. Use a DNS lookup tool to verify your domain is resolving to the expected IP address from multiple locations.

Fix Broken Links and Permalinks

1. If you use WordPress, go to the admin dashboard and select Settings, then Permalinks.
2. Without making changes, click Save Changes to flush rewrite rules and regenerate the .htaccess file.
3. For custom-coded websites, inspect your .htaccess or nginx.conf file for incorrect rewrite rules that may be pointing to non-existent files.
4. Use a broken link checker tool to scan your site for internal links returning 404 errors and update them to the correct URLs.

Troubleshooting

404 Error on Only One Page

• The specific page file may be missing or deleted. Restore it from your most recent backup.
• The URL may have changed without a redirect. Create a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new page.
• File permissions on that specific page may be too restrictive. Verify the file is readable by the web server.

404 Error on the Entire Website

• Your domain may have expired or DNS records may be incorrect. Check with your registrar and hosting provider.
• The website's root directory may be missing the default index file, such as index.html, index.php, or default.aspx.
• Your hosting account may be suspended due to non-payment or a terms-of-service violation.

404 Error Only on Mobile Devices

• Clear the mobile browser cache and site data.
• Check for mobile-specific redirects or plugins that may be sending visitors to incorrect URLs.
• Test on a different mobile network to rule out local DNS caching issues.

If you host with us, you don't need to do this yourself — just Open a Ticket and our Brisbane team will get it sorted.

If you have worked through these steps and your website is still returning 404 errors, Open a Ticket with our support team for further assistance.

Still Having Issues?