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Fix 404 Errors After Turning On SEF URLs

This guide helps you fix pages that show "404 Not Found" after you switch on search engine friendly links.

WordPress2 min read16 steps

What are SEF URLs?

SEF means "search engine friendly". An URL is a web address. A friendly address reads like words, such as yourdomain.com/about-us. An unfriendly one looks like yourdomain.com/?p=123. In WordPress these are called permalinks. Some other tools, like Joomla, call the setting "SEF URLs".

Friendly links need the server to rewrite addresses. It does this using a file named .htaccess. This is a hidden settings file on the Apache web server. If the file is missing or the rewrite feature is off, every page except the home page gives a 404 error.

Warning: Take a backup before you edit files. Download a copy of your current .htaccess file first.
  1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
  2. Click Settings, then Permalinks.
  3. Click Save Changes without changing anything.
  4. Open one of the pages that gave the error.

Fix 2: Check the .htaccess file

  1. Log in to your hosting control panel.
  2. Open File Manager and go to your site folder, often public_html.
  3. Turn on Show Hidden Files.
  4. Look for .htaccess.
  5. If it is missing, create a new file with that exact name.
  6. For WordPress, paste the block below.
  7. Save the file.
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

This sends any address that is not a real file or folder to WordPress.

Fix 3: Joomla sites

Joomla ships a file named htaccess.txt in its main folder.

  1. In the File Manager, find htaccess.txt.
  2. Rename it to .htaccess.
  3. In the Joomla admin area, open Global Configuration.
  4. Under Site, set Search Engine Friendly URLs and Use URL Rewriting to Yes.
  5. Click Save.

Fix 4: Check for an overriding setting

  • If your site is in a sub-folder, change RewriteBase / to the folder name, such as RewriteBase /blog/.
  • Turn off plugins one by one to see if one blocks the rules.
  • Make sure the file is in the same folder as your site's index.php.

Fix 5: Ask support

On some servers, URL rewriting must be turned on by the host. Open a ticket at https://secure.hostvento.com/submitticket.php and ask if rewriting is on for your plan.

Quick recap

  • Friendly links need rewrite rules in .htaccess.
  • Missing or damaged rules cause 404 errors.
  • Re-save permalinks or restore the standard rules.
  • Joomla needs htaccess.txt renamed to .htaccess.
  • Ask support if rewriting is not enabled.