A client reported a significant number of 404 (Page Not Found) errors following a recent redesign of their WordPress site. These errors were impacting SEO and user experience, as they appeared in Google Analytics and Search Console reports. Our team conducted a full review to identify the root causes — including outdated multilingual URLs, removed content, and malformed external links — and implemented a lasting fix to restore site integrity and search engine visibility.
Issue background
After the redesign, the client’s Google Analytics began reporting hundreds of 404 errors. These missing pages included URLs with French language paths (/fr/), removed leadership profiles, and old paginated post URLs that no longer existed in the new site structure.
Additionally, several 404s were caused by external URLs (like links to Apple or Amazon) being incorrectly formatted as internal links — missing the full https:// prefix, which caused browsers to interpret them as broken internal paths.
Diagnosis
Our first step was to confirm how the errors were being tracked. Using Google Analytics and Google Search Console, we reviewed the error logs and sitemap coverage. We quickly identified that:
- The site previously used Weglot Translate for multilingual support, but it had been disabled after the redesign. Old
/fr/URLs were still being crawled by Google. - Certain categories and leadership profiles had been removed entirely.
- Several external URLs in blog posts were written without full protocols (
https://), creating false 404s. - Six key XML sitemaps were missing from Google Search Console, causing outdated URLs to remain indexed.
Resolution steps
1. Reindexing the site structure
We added all missing sitemaps to Google Search Console, ensuring that Google could properly crawl the new URL structure and remove outdated paths.
2. Reviewing internal and external links
We ran a link audit and corrected malformed URLs, ensuring every external link contained the full URL (https://example.com). This prevented WordPress from mistaking them as local links.
3. Addressing legacy multilingual content
Because Weglot Translate had been previously used, we confirmed that /fr/ URLs were no longer valid. We implemented redirect rules for the most frequently accessed /fr/ pages to their English equivalents, reducing user-facing 404s.
4. Validating Google Analytics tracking
We confirmed that the 404 data source came from Google Analytics rather than the site itself, validating that no functional errors persisted on live pages.
5. Monitoring results
We scheduled follow-up checks to monitor crawl reports and confirmed that the number of 404s decreased over the following week as Google re-crawled the site.
Final outcome
After sitemap corrections, link updates, and redirect implementations, the 404 count dropped dramatically.
- All valid URLs were reindexed by Google.
- External link errors were eliminated.
- Legacy multilingual URLs no longer appeared in error reports.
The site’s SEO visibility and crawl health returned to normal, with no further issues detected in follow-up reports.
Key takeaways
- Always revalidate sitemaps and redirects after a website redesign.
- Disable or properly remove multilingual plugins like Weglot only after ensuring search engines no longer crawl legacy paths.
- Always include the full protocol (
https://) when linking to external domains in WordPress posts. - Use tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics together to distinguish between actual server-side 404s and indexing artifacts.
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