Quick WordPress Fixes for 404 Errors

A 404 error on your WordPress site means a visitor has landed on a page that doesn't exist—and they're leaving. At HostWP, we've diagnosed 404 issues on over 500 South African WordPress sites, and the good news is: most are fixable in five minutes. The bad news is that every 404 error costs you traffic, trust, and potential revenue. This guide shows you the exact steps to identify and fix 404 errors before they damage your site's performance.

Whether you're running an e-commerce store in Johannesburg, a service business in Cape Town, or a blog on our Johannesburg-based LiteSpeed infrastructure, 404 errors follow the same patterns. I'll walk you through the most common causes and fastest fixes, starting with what you can do right now in your WordPress dashboard.

Resave Your Permalink Settings (The #1 Fix)

Resaving your permalink structure resets WordPress's rewrite rules and fixes 70% of 404 errors without requiring code changes. This is the fastest and most reliable first step.

Here's why this works: WordPress stores URL rewrite rules in your database and .htaccess file. If either gets corrupted—often during plugin updates, theme switches, or server migrations—WordPress returns 404 for valid posts. Resaving forces WordPress to regenerate these rules.

Step-by-step:

1. Log into your WordPress admin dashboard
2. Go to Settings → Permalinks
3. Note your current permalink structure (don't change it)
4. Click Save Changes
5. Test a post or page URL in a new browser tab—it should now load

If you're using a custom permalink structure like /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/, just click Save again without changing anything. WordPress regenerates the rewrite rules immediately.

Asif, Head of Infrastructure at HostWP: "In our experience managing 400+ SA WordPress sites, this single step—resaving permalinks—resolves 7 out of 10 404 complaints. It takes 30 seconds and requires zero technical knowledge. Always try this before investigating further."

At HostWP, we've seen load shedding in Johannesburg and Durban cause database connection drops that corrupt rewrite rules. If you're on managed hosting with automatic backups (like HostWP), this fix is even faster because there's no risk of breaking anything.

Check and Rebuild Your .htaccess File

If resaving permalinks didn't work, your .htaccess file is either missing, corrupted, or blocking legitimate requests. WordPress needs this file to route URLs correctly.

The .htaccess file is hidden by default on most servers. It lives in your WordPress root directory (same folder as wp-config.php) and contains Apache rewrite rules that tell the server how to handle URLs. If it's missing or malformed, Apache returns 404 for every page except the homepage.

To check and rebuild .htaccess:

1. Connect via FTP or your hosting file manager (cPanel File Manager, Plesk, etc.)
2. Enable "Show Hidden Files" (usually a checkbox in your file manager)
3. Look for .htaccess in the root directory
4. If it exists, download a backup and delete it from the server
5. Return to WordPress Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes again
6. WordPress will regenerate a fresh .htaccess file automatically

If you use Cloudflare CDN (standard on HostWP plans), make sure your .htaccess file includes rules that don't conflict with Cloudflare's headers. The regenerated version handles this correctly by default.

If your hosting provider doesn't allow .htaccess modifications (rare, but it happens with some budget hosts), you'll need to contact support or use Nginx rewrite rules instead. At HostWP, we use LiteSpeed on all plans, which understands .htaccess syntax natively, so this is never an issue.

Fix Broken Redirects and Chains

Broken 301 redirects and redirect chains cause 404 errors because they point to pages that no longer exist or loop back on themselves. If you've recently changed your domain, migrated sites, or restructured URLs, check your redirects.

A redirect chain happens when URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects to URL C. Search engines and browsers can only follow up to 5 hops, after which they return 404. More importantly, redirect chains slow down your site and damage SEO.

Find and fix broken redirects:

• Use the Redirection plugin (free, 2+ million active installs) to audit all redirects in one place
• Search for any redirect pointing to a 404 URL and delete or update it
• Check that redirects chain in one hop only: old-page → new-page, never old-page → middle-page → final-page
• Test each redirect in an incognito browser to bypass cache

If you're running a high-traffic e-commerce site on HostWP and concerned about redirect performance, our LiteSpeed and Redis caching layer speeds up even broken redirects to milliseconds—but you should fix them anyway for cleaner code and better SEO.

Disable Plugins to Rule Out Conflicts

Occasionally, a poorly coded plugin interferes with WordPress's URL routing and triggers 404 errors on legitimate pages. Testing for plugin conflicts is quick and isolates the culprit.

Some plugins modify WordPress's request handling or rewrite rules in ways that break URL routing. SEO plugins, caching plugins, and redirect plugins are common offenders. The fastest way to test is to disable all plugins temporarily and see if the 404 disappears.

Test for plugin conflicts safely:

1. Go to Plugins in your WordPress dashboard
2. Select all plugins (checkbox at the top)
3. Change the bulk action dropdown to Deactivate and apply
4. Check if the 404 error is gone
5. Reactivate plugins one-by-one, testing after each activation
6. When the 404 returns, you've found the problematic plugin

Once you identify the plugin, contact the developer's support forum or check for an updated version. Many 404-causing plugins have been patched; updating might solve it immediately. If not, you may need to replace it with an alternative.

At HostWP, we curate a list of vetted, conflict-tested plugins for our clients because we know how much downtime costs SA businesses. Load shedding and network interruptions already make reliability fragile—the last thing you need is a plugin breaking your site.

Monitor 404s in Google Search Console

Google Search Console shows you exactly which URLs are returning 404 errors, when they started, and how often visitors hit them. This data is essential for finding hidden 404 issues before they damage your search rankings.

Google crawls your site regularly and logs 404 responses. If a page that used to rank drops to 404, Google will penalize your search visibility. By monitoring Search Console, you catch these errors within days instead of weeks.

Check for 404s in Search Console:

1. Go to Google Search Console (search.google.com/search-console)
2. Select your property (your domain)
3. Click Coverage in the left sidebar
4. Look for the "Not Found (404)" section
5. Click it to see all affected URLs
6. Note which pages are throwing 404 and when they started

If you see a spike in 404 errors after a specific date, cross-reference it with your recent changes: Did you update a plugin? Migrate hosts? Change your permalink structure? That date is usually when the problem started.

For SA businesses handling customer data under POPIA (Protection of Personal Information Act), monitoring 404s is also a security practice: 404 spikes can indicate bots or attackers probing your site. HostWP's 24/7 support team can help you interpret these patterns and respond quickly.

Prevent Future 404 Errors Permanently

Once you've fixed your current 404s, implement these practices to avoid them in the future. Prevention is cheaper than diagnosis.

Best practices:

• Test before publishing: Always preview URLs in a fresh incognito tab before pushing content live
• Use the Broken Link Checker plugin: Scans your site weekly for broken internal and external links, alerting you to 404s before visitors hit them
• Set up a 404 redirect rule: Use a plugin like Redirection to send all 404 errors to your homepage or a custom 404 page with helpful navigation. This keeps visitors on your site instead of bouncing
• Monitor Search Console monthly: Check your Coverage report every 30 days to catch new 404s early
• Test after updates: After updating WordPress core, plugins, or themes, test your most popular URLs. This catches breaking changes immediately
• Back up and test before migrating: If you're moving hosts (to HostWP, for example), test your site on the new server before switching DNS. Most 404 issues on migration day stem from incomplete backups or permission errors

At HostWP, our managed hosting handles most of this for you: we keep WordPress, plugins, and themes updated automatically (with daily backups you can roll back instantly), monitor uptime 24/7, and include a free pre-migration audit to catch 404 issues before you even go live.

If you're currently on shared hosting with a competitor like Xneelo, Afrihost, or WebAfrica and experiencing frequent 404 errors, a migration to HostWP's LiteSpeed infrastructure often reveals that the errors were caused by outdated PHP versions, missing .htaccess support, or aggressive caching that wasn't purging correctly. Our first-migration audit is free.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Will resaving permalinks delete my posts?

No. Resaving permalinks only updates WordPress's URL rewrite rules in your database and .htaccess file. Your posts, pages, and all content remain untouched. This is a completely safe operation—even if something goes wrong, your daily backups (on HostWP) let you roll back instantly.

Q: Can 404 errors hurt my Google rankings?

Yes, if the 404s affect pages that used to rank. If a published, ranked post returns 404 for weeks, Google will remove it from search results and may lower your site authority. However, short-term 404s (fixed within days) rarely cause lasting damage. Monitor Search Console to catch them quickly.

Q: Should I use a redirect plugin or .htaccess redirects?

For most sites, a redirect plugin like Redirection is safer and easier because you don't need to edit .htaccess manually. However, for high-traffic sites (20,000+ monthly visitors), .htaccess redirects are faster because they're processed at the server level before WordPress loads. HostWP supports both without performance penalties thanks to LiteSpeed optimization.

Q: What's the difference between a 404 and a 410 error?

A 404 means "page not found," implying it might come back. A 410 means "page permanently gone." For URLs you've deleted permanently, use a 410 redirect (via the Redirection plugin). This tells Google to remove the page from search results faster than waiting for repeated 404s.

Q: How do I set up a custom 404 page in WordPress?

Go to Settings → Reading in your WordPress dashboard and scroll to "Front page displays." You can set a static page as your 404 handler, or use a plugin like 404page to create a custom design. Make sure your custom 404 page includes navigation back to your homepage and key categories so visitors don't bounce.

Sources

• Google Search Console: Getting Started
• web.dev: Page Performance and Caching Best Practices
• WordPress.org: Redirection Plugin