Understanding 404 Page Views in Marketing Analytics FAQ

In this article a 404 refers to any language used in your page title which is informing a user that the resource they’re looking for is no longer available.

Environment / Applicability

• Products/Features: Siteimprove Marketing Analytics
• Topics: Page titles, redirects, broken links, CMS behavior
• Audience: Digital marketers, analytics users, SEO teams, content managers

Q:

Why do I see 404 page views in my Marketing Analytics data?

A:

In Marketing Analytics, a “404” refers to any page whose page title indicates that the resource a user attempted to access is no longer available. How these 404 views appear in your data depends on how your CMS handles missing or removed pages.

Additional Details

How CMS behavior impacts 404 data

• Some CMSs redirect all missing pages to a single URL (e.g., /404), resulting in all 404 page views being logged under that single URL.
• Other CMSs display a 404 message but keep the original URL in the browser. In these cases, analytics will show 404 page titles across multiple unique URLs.

How 404s affect Analytics data

Marketing Analytics captures the last recorded page title for a URL. If a removed page gets a visit, its page title may update to the 404 title, which overwrites historic data associated with that URL.

Why you may see 404 page views even if Quality Assurance shows no broken links

• Users may follow old browser bookmarks.
• External websites may still link to outdated URLs.
• Old campaigns or third‑party sources may continue driving traffic to removed pages.

Why a working link may still display a 404 page title

If a URL resolved to a 404 page before a redirect was added, the 404 page title may have been recorded. If users continue visiting the pre‑redirect destination (via bookmarks or external links), analytics may continue showing a 404 title for that URL.

How you can use this data

404 insights help identify URLs where users reach a dead end. Where appropriate, you can add redirects to guide visitors to a relevant, available resource.