Some broken links are not on your site at all: other websites, old bookmarks, and search results point to pages that no longer exist. The 404 Monitor logs those requests so you can redirect the ones that matter. This guide shows how to read it and what is stored.
What You’ll Learn
- What the 404 Monitor logs and what it does not
- How to read the list
- How to redirect, ignore, or delete an address
- How to tune what is logged
What It Logs
When a visitor lands on a page that does not exist, the monitor stores the address, how many times it was asked for, when it was last asked for, and the pages the visitors came from. It stores nothing else: no IP address, no user agent, and no query string. Search engine crawlers and logged-in editors are left out by default.
Reading the List
Open Redirects and click 404 Monitor. The top line shows how many missing addresses there are, how many visits, and how many were seen in the last 7 days. The table shows the Missing address, Visits, and Came from, which is the page the visitors came from, or Direct visit or no referrer. Sort with Most visits or Latest, and search by address.
What to Do With an Address
- Redirect – the field is filled with a suggestion, the published page whose address is most like the missing one, and you can type another. Click Redirect (301) and the row stays in the list, marked Redirected with its new address, so you can see that it is handled.
- Ignore – add the address to your ignore list and stop logging it. Good for scanner probes such as
/wp-login.php. - Delete – remove the row only.
- Clear the 404 Log – remove everything. Your redirects are not changed.
Start with the addresses with the most visits and the ones with a real page as the referrer.
Options
Under Options you can turn the 404 Monitor on or off, choose Ignore Crawlers, list Ignore Addresses (one per line, any address that contains the text is skipped), and choose how long to Keep the 404 Log For (30 to 365 days). The log also keeps at most 5,000 addresses, and old rows are removed automatically.
This feature is available in Broken Link Fixer Pro.