🔍 What This Article Covers
If your website is displaying only the home page correctly while other pages return 404 errors or show an ERR_NETWORK_CHANGED message in your browser, this guide will help you identify the cause and resolve it — without unnecessarily removing your OTTO SEO HTML sections.
⚠️ Understanding the Symptoms
Before making any changes to your site, it is important to understand what these errors mean:
- 404 errors on internal pages: The server cannot find the requested page. This is usually a server, hosting, or URL configuration issue — not a Search Atlas or OTTO SEO problem.
- ERR_NETWORK_CHANGED: Your local network connection changed while the browser was loading the page. This is a client-side network issue (on your device or internet connection) and is not caused by your website's content or OTTO HTML sections.
💡 Should You Remove Your OTTO HTML Sections?
No. OTTO SEO HTML sections are installed in your page content and do not affect your server routing, URL structure, or network connectivity. Removing them will not fix 404 errors or ERR_NETWORK_CHANGED messages, and doing so unnecessarily will undo your SEO optimisations. Leave your OTTO HTML sections in place while you follow the troubleshooting steps below.
🛠️ Step-by-Step Troubleshooting
- Test your network connection first. Open a different website in a new browser tab to confirm your internet connection is stable. If other sites also fail to load or behave inconsistently, the issue is with your local network — try restarting your router or switching to a different network.
- Clear your browser cache and cookies. A stale cache can cause pages to return incorrect 404 responses. In your browser settings, clear cached images, files, and cookies, then reload the affected pages.
- Test in a private or incognito window. Open an incognito or private browsing window and navigate directly to the pages showing 404 errors. This rules out browser extensions or cached data as the cause.
- Try a different browser or device. If the pages load correctly in another browser or on a different device, the problem is specific to your original browser's configuration.
- Check your website's URL structure and redirects. Log in to your hosting control panel and verify that all page URLs are correctly configured. Look for broken redirects, recently changed permalink settings, or misconfigured .htaccess rules (for WordPress sites).
- Check for recent hosting or DNS changes. If your domain's DNS records or hosting server settings were recently changed, propagation can take up to 48 hours and may cause intermittent 404 errors on certain pages. Contact your hosting provider to confirm no configuration changes were made.
- Review your CMS permalink settings (WordPress users). Go to Settings → Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard and click Save Changes without modifying anything. This refreshes your rewrite rules and often resolves sudden 404 errors on internal pages.
- Verify pages exist in your CMS or Website Studio. In Search Atlas, navigate to Website Studio (left sidebar → Website Studio) and confirm that all affected pages are published and have the correct URLs assigned. Unpublished or draft pages will return 404 errors for visitors.
✅ After Troubleshooting
Once your pages are loading correctly, verify that your OTTO SEO HTML sections are still present and intact. If any sections appear to be missing after cache clearing or CMS changes, you can re-apply them from within the OTTO SEO workflow. Your SEO settings and configurations are saved in Search Atlas and are not lost during network or server-side issues.
🚫 Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Do not remove OTTO HTML sections as a first troubleshooting step — they are not the cause of 404 or network errors.
- Do not change your URL structure or permalink settings unless you understand the impact on existing indexed pages.
- Do not assume a 404 error is permanent — intermittent 404s during network changes or DNS propagation are temporary and will resolve on their own.
💬 Still Need Help?
If you have followed all the steps above and are still experiencing 404 errors or connectivity issues, If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.