One of the reports in Google Search Console is the 404 errors report. Every site tends to have at least a few of these 404s, but is it a sign of low quality?
John Mueller was asked about 404s being a sign of low quality, and if 410s are better to use for this reason. But, fortunately for SEOs, 404s are not a sign of a low quality site to Google.
@wockenfoth no, that's definitely not the case.
— John ☆.o(≧▽≦)o.☆ (@JohnMu) March 17, 2017
Google has talked previously about 404s as it relates to quality. Google has confirmed that there are no penalty issues related with having 4o4s. 404s are not any kind of an issue with Google Panda.
And Mueller also said that most 404s are not actually the fault of a site owner. And if they had made 404s as a quality issue, then people would just trigger 404s on their competitors all day long.
Jennifer Slegg
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Ammon Johns says
Of course, a *lack* of 404s can still be a pretty huge issue. Where Googlebot cannot get a proper 404 header response, and any error either redirects to a 404 page, or worse, actually serves a 404 page with a 200 ‘ok’ response, this can make a site a theoretical bottomless pit and in my experience, can significantly lower the ranking (and crawling) of the site.