One of my is not generating correct 404 code. If page is not found it is set to 301 on not found page. Now problem is 404 has started to ranking on many major keywords. I want to fix it but programming / IT team is unable to find our servers configuration they may have done something in past with it and unable to redo it. If possible give me clue what I can look for to resolve it.
Well, without know your site (like what CMS it's running and plugins for 404s installed, which webserver or .htaccess customisations - if it's Apache - to handle 404s, for example) it's hard to say. Your programming team sounds incompetent. My first suggestion would be to find someone who knows what they are doing.
Hi Ryan Site is running on apache - Linux and software is coding netter. Servers is dedicated. hope this will help
Hi, I was away on business the past few days, so just saw your reply. Well, the first place I would look is .htaccess, to see what they have done in terms of any redirects. This could be at code level, but to find that (if it's custom code) could be a headache if your programmers are as bad as they seem (surely they documented changes and their code?!). Check .htaccess first. If you don't understand the contents, look for anything that contains "redirect" and "404", to start with.