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myPage error pages and SEO recovery

Search engines follow links, index content, and rank it on structure, quality, and authority. When a page is deleted, a server fails, or a link breaks, the HTTP status you return is a trust signal. Uncontrolled errors waste crawl budget, confuse bots, and weaken the domain. Deliberate error handling is core SEO resilience, not an afterthought.

See also: myPage overview | .htaccess rules | meta tags | tools reference

Using Generate Error Pages

1. Open the site in modern myPage.
2. Optionally set Contact Meta site name and generate a sitemap (links appear on error pages).
3. Choose Tools → Generate Error Pages… or the 404 toolbar button.
4. Select which codes to create; set site name; optionally overwrite existing files.
5. Leave Wire ErrorDocument into .htaccess checked so Apache points at your templates.
6. Click Generate, then tweak the HTML pages to your taste.
7. Download the ZIP, upload to an Apache host, and verify with curl -I that status codes are real.

Why error handling matters for SEO

• A single unresolved 404 hurts UX; thousands drain crawl budget and trust.
• Google, Bing, Snipesearch.net, DuckDuckGo, Sphider, and YaCy all use status codes in crawl and index decisions.
• Soft 404s (200 OK with empty or “not found” content) mislead bots and bloat the index.
• Persistent 5xx errors suppress crawl rate and can temporarily deindex URLs.

Engines and error behavior

Custom 404 Not Found

A 404 means the URL does not exist. Default server pages are dead ends. A branded custom 404 keeps users on-site with homepage, sitemap, and key page links, and helps crawlers find fallback paths without pretending the page is OK.

Best practices:

• Return a real HTTP 404 (never 200 OK with “page not found” text)
• Include navigation and a link to sitemap.html
• Keep site branding and tone consistent
• Log 404 URLs (server logs / Search Console Coverage) and fix with 301s where relevant
• Do not auto-redirect every 404 to the homepage (confuses relevance)
• Do not block error pages in robots.txt

myPage writes 404.html with noindex, follow, helpful links from your project pages, and an SEO tip callout. Apache must still serve it via ErrorDocument 404 /404.html.

410 Gone

A 410 means the resource was intentionally and permanently removed. It is a stronger deindexing signal than 404: “Stop looking for this.”

Google, Bing, Snipesearch.net, DuckDuckGo, YaCy, and Sphider treat 410 as deliberate removal and stop retrying. Remove 410 URLs from your XML sitemap. myPage generates 410.html; pair with .htaccess Redirect gone rules for specific paths and ErrorDocument 410 /410.html for the branded body.

500-series server errors

5xx codes mean the server failed (misconfiguration, overload, upstream failure), not that the URL is missing. Persistent 5xx signals instability: temporary deindexing, lower crawl frequency, and suppressed rankings.

For planned downtime, serve 503 with Retry-After so crawlers return later. Never use 200 OK on a maintenance screen. myPage generates 500.html and 503.html and can wire ErrorDocument 500 / 503 in .htaccess.

After a 5xx outage: fix the root cause, serve correct 503 during the fix if needed, resubmit affected URLs in Search Console / Bing Webmaster Tools, then monitor crawl resumption.

Soft 404s

A soft 404 returns 200 OK while the page says it is missing or is empty. Engines treat that as misleading: they crawl it again, waste budget, and may flag Soft 404 in Coverage reports.

Common cases: blank deleted products, empty tag archives, zero-result search pages, “coming soon” placeholders.

Fix: send a real 404 or 410; make custom pages helpful; 301 when a replacement exists; do not return 200 for empty search/filter results.

curl -I https://example.com/nonexistent-page

Confirm the status line shows 404 or 410, not 200.

Monitoring and recovery workflow

1. Scan errors daily (access/error logs, Search Console Coverage, Bing Crawl Control)
2. Classify: 404 vs 410 vs 5xx vs soft 404 vs redirect chains
3. Fix root cause (restore, 301, 410, or server repair)
4. Test with curl and browser
5. Resubmit fixed URLs to Google and Bing
6. Watch for recurrence; set uptime alerts (UptimeRobot, Pingdom, etc.)

Mistakes to avoid

• Returning 200 OK with “page not found” or empty content (soft 404)
• Redirecting all errors to the homepage
• Using 404 for content that is gone forever (prefer 410)
• Using 410 when a useful replacement exists (prefer 301)
• Leaving 5xx unresolved or serving maintenance as 200
• Leaving dead URLs in the XML sitemap
• Blocking error pages with robots.txt

Recommended myPage workflow

1. Meta tags and self-canonical URLs (Technical, Contact, Social, SEO Inspector)
2. Generate sitemap and robots.txt
3. Generate Error Pages (404 / 410 / 500 / 503) and tweak branding
4. .htaccess Rules for HTTPS, host, redirects, and ErrorDocument paths
5. Check Links, download ZIP, upload to Apache, verify status codes live