404 Monitor: Find and Fix Missing URLs

The 404 Monitor tracks every 404 error on your site so you can see which URLs visitors and search engines are trying to access. Instead of guessing what’s broken, you get a log of missing URLs with hit counts, referrers, and user agents. You can then turn those log entries into redirects or delete them once fixed.

Where to find it

Go to SEOvault AI > General > 404 Monitor.

How it works

When a visitor or bot requests a URL that doesn’t exist on your site, WordPress returns a 404 response. SEOvault AI captures these requests and logs them to a database table. The log includes:

URL — the missing path requested
Hits — how many times this URL has been accessed
Referrer — where the request came from (if available)
User Agent — the browser or bot that made the request
Last Accessed — when the 404 last occurred

The monitor has two logging modes:

Simple mode — logs only the URL and hit count. Lightweight, good for high-traffic sites.
Advanced mode — logs URL, hit count, referrer, and user agent. More detail for debugging.

You can also exclude certain URL patterns from logging (for example, if you know a particular path is always hit by bots and you don’t care about it).

View and manage 404 logs

The 404 Monitor table shows all logged 404 errors with pagination, sorting, and search.

Sort and search

Click column headers to sort by URL, hits, or last accessed date
Use the search box to filter by URL pattern
Adjust the page size from the “Screen Options” dropdown

Delete log entries

Click Delete next to a single entry to remove it
Select multiple entries with checkboxes and choose Delete from the bulk actions dropdown
Clear all logs at once using the “Clear All Logs” button at the bottom of the tab

Delete entries when you have fixed the underlying issue (created a redirect, restored the content, or confirmed the URL is no longer relevant).

Turn a 404 log entry into a redirect

The most common workflow is converting a frequently-hit 404 into a redirect:

Go to SEOvault AI > General > 404 Monitor
Find the URL you want to redirect in the log table
Click Redirect in the Actions column
The Redirect Manager tab opens with the origin URL pre-filled
Enter the target URL (where you want to send visitors instead)
Choose the redirect type (301 for permanent, 302 for temporary)
Click Add Redirect

The log entry remains in the 404 Monitor after you create the redirect — delete it manually if you want to clean up the list.

404 Monitor settings

Configure logging behavior under the 404 Monitor tab:

Mode

Choose between Simple (URL + hits only) or Advanced (URL + hits + referrer + user agent). Advanced mode uses more database storage but gives you more context about where 404s are coming from.

Ignore Query Parameters

Enable this to treat /page?param=value and /page as the same URL. Useful when tracking parameters create duplicate 404 entries for the same underlying path.

Exclusions

Add URL patterns to exclude from logging. For each exclusion rule:

Pattern — the text or regex to match
Comparison — how to match:
- Contains — pattern appears anywhere in the URL
- Exact — URL must match the pattern exactly
- Starts with — URL begins with the pattern
- Ends with — URL ends with the pattern
- Regex — use a regular expression pattern

Use exclusions for paths you know are irrelevant (for example, /wp-content/plugins/old-plugin/ if you deliberately removed that plugin and don’t need to track attempts to access it).

Log Limit

Set the maximum number of log entries to keep. When the limit is reached, the oldest entries are automatically deleted. This prevents the log table from growing indefinitely on high-traffic sites. Set to 0 to disable automatic pruning.

Compatibility notes

The 404 Monitor automatically disables if another SEO plugin is active and detected as handling SEO output. This prevents duplicate logging and conflicts. If you see a warning on the Dashboard about another SEO plugin, either deactivate it or switch SEOvault AI to Disabled mode for the features you want the other plugin to handle.