A 404 error is an HTTP status code meaning the server could not find the requested page. For PrestaShop stores, 404 errors have a dual negative impact: they degrade user experience and waste Googlebot's crawl budget on non-existent URLs.
Hard 404s vs. soft 404s
There are two categories of 404 errors. Hard 404s are true errors: the server explicitly returns an HTTP 404 status code for a non-existent URL. Soft 404s are more insidious: the page displays an error message but returns an HTTP 200 (success) code, deceiving Googlebot into indexing an empty or valueless page. Soft 404s are particularly problematic because they do not appear as errors in standard tools and can quietly pollute your index with low-quality pages.
SEO impact of 404 errors
Wasted crawl budget
Every 404 page crawled by Googlebot consumes part of your crawl budget with no return. On large stores, this can mean hundreds of valid product pages are never crawled.
Lost link equity
If external or internal pages link to a 404 URL, all the link equity accumulated by those backlinks is lost. Those links no longer pass any authority to your site.
Poor user experience
Visitors who land on a 404 page typically leave immediately. This increases bounce rate and reduces conversions, especially for deleted product pages.
How to find 404 errors
- Google Search Console → Coverage report: lists 404 URLs detected by Googlebot
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider: crawls your site and identifies all broken internal links
- Ahrefs or Semrush: detect external backlinks pointing to 404 URLs
- Server logs: reveal all requests that received a 404 response
PrestaShop: deleted products and categories
How to fix 404 errors
The main solution is to set up a 301 redirect to the most relevant available page: the replacement product, the parent category, or the homepage as a last resort. Also fix broken internal links by updating them directly in the content. For accidental 404s caused by typos in links, correcting the source link is sufficient.