Some Website Studio users have reported that pages were unexpectedly deleted from their site, resulting in 404 errors for visitors. This article explains why this can happen, what steps to take immediately, and how to prevent it in the future.
Page deletions in Website Studio can occur due to the following reasons:
Accidental deletion: A team member may have removed a page using the delete action inside Website Studio without realising its impact on live traffic.
Known platform issue (now resolved): A previous bug caused pages to be silently removed from Website Studio projects without a visible error or confirmation. This issue has been fixed in a recent platform update. If your pages disappeared unexpectedly without any delete action being taken, this bug may be responsible.
Sync desync between the CMS and Website Studio: In some cases, a disconnect between the backend and Website Studio caused pages to stop appearing in your project, even though no deletion was intended.
If your pages are returning 404 errors, act quickly to minimise impact on SEO and user experience. Follow these steps:
Check your Website Studio project: Go to Website Studio in the left sidebar and open your project. Confirm whether the affected pages are missing from the page list or simply unpublished.
Check for unpublished drafts: The pages may still exist as drafts. Look for them in your page list with a Draft or Unpublished status and republish them.
Review your team activity: Go to the top-right corner avatar → Team Members to see who has access to your project. Consider whether any recent activity by a team member could have caused the deletion.
Contact support for backend restoration: If the pages are completely missing and cannot be found in drafts, a backend restore may be required. 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. Provide the affected page URLs, your project name, and the approximate date the pages went missing so our team can prioritise the restore.
When pages are lost due to a platform-side issue, our engineering team can perform a backend restore to recover the content. Important things to know about this process:
Restoration is handled directly by our technical team and is not a self-service action.
The sooner you report the issue, the better the chance of a full recovery.
You will be notified once the restore is complete and your pages are live again.
To reduce the risk of losing pages in the future, follow these best practices:
Limit team permissions: Only grant Admin-level access to team members who need to manage or delete pages. Go to the top-right corner avatar → Team Members to review and adjust roles.
Always confirm before deleting: The delete modal in Website Studio requires confirmation. Read the prompt carefully before proceeding — deleted pages may not be recoverable without a backend restore.
Keep a record of important page URLs: Maintain a simple list of your highest-traffic pages. This makes it faster to identify and report any missing content.
Monitor for 404 errors regularly: Use Search Atlas reporting tools to track crawl errors and catch 404 issues early before they affect your rankings.
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.