Ask Could you help me solve my problem with 404 errors even though I created domain redirects?

[Brajet]

Hi everyone, I would really appreciate any help or advice to resolve an issue I'm having with my website.

I'm a photographer, and recently I switched from using WordPress to Pixieset to build my new website. When I transferred everything over to Pixieset, I believe Google still indexed many of the old links from my previous WordPress site. Initially, I had around 400 broken links resulting in 404 errors. To fix this, I set up redirects using SiteGround, which is my hosting provider. Despite implementing these redirects, I am still seeing 196 broken links reported. These URLs are supposed to redirect back to my new main website, but the problem persists. If anyone has experience with this or suggestions, I would be very grateful. Thank you so much!

 

[Anthony Joshua]

I've had a similar problem before, and usually it comes down to how the redirects were set up. Even if you created domain redirects, if the URLs aren't matching exactly, visitors can still hit 404 pages. Make sure the redirect points to the correct page and includes all variations like www versus non-www and HTTP versus HTTPS. Sometimes using a plugin or editing the .htaccess file carefully can fix the issue. Double-checking all your old links is key.

 

[Felix😎]

@Brajet. This sounds frustrating, but don't worry—it's solvable! First, make sure all your redirects are entered correctly in the .htaccess file (if you're using Apache). If you set them up through SiteGround, double-check the settings in your control panel to confirm they're active and applied to all subdirectories.

Next, in Google Search Console, go to the Coverage report and inspect the 404 errors. Sometimes, Google keeps old URLs in its index for a while. Submit a new sitemap from Pixieset to help Google recognize your new URLs faster, and use the URL removal tool to request removal of outdated links.
Also, if you have backlinks pointing to your old site, they could still be directing traffic to broken pages. You might want to audit your backlinks and reach out to site owners to update their links to the new website. This can reduce the 404 errors over time.