Soft 404
What is a soft 404?
A soft 404 is a URL that returns a 200 OK status code but whose content looks like an error, an empty page or a "not found" message. Because the server says the page is fine while the content says it is not, Google reports it as a soft 404 in Search Console and leaves it out of the index.
Common causes: an error page or "no results" page that returns 200, empty category or search pages, product pages for discontinued items with no content, pages that depend on JavaScript that failed to load, and redirects of many unrelated URLs to the homepage or another generic page.
Why soft 404 matters for SEO
Soft 404s waste crawl budget: Google says they continue to be crawled because the status code keeps telling it they exist. They also confuse reporting, since the page looks fine in your monitoring but never ranks.
Sometimes Google flags real pages as soft 404s because they are too thin to look like real content. That is a signal to improve the page, not just a technical bug. See thin content.
How to fix soft 404 errors
- Open the page indexing report in Google Search Console and filter for "Soft 404".
- For pages that really are gone, return a 404 or 410 status, or 301 redirect to a close replacement.
- Make sure your error page and empty search results return a 404 status (or are noindexed), not 200.
- For real pages Google mistook for errors, add substantial content and check that it renders without relying on scripts that can fail. Use URL Inspection to see what Google rendered.
- Replace blanket homepage redirects with redirects to relevant pages, or let the old URLs 404.
Soft 404 example
https://shop.example.com/product/blue-kettle was discontinued. The page now shows "Sorry, this product is no longer available" and nothing else, but still returns 200. Google flags it as a soft 404. Better: 301 redirect it to the current kettle range, or return 410.
Soft 404 FAQ
What is the difference between a 404 and a soft 404?
A 404 returns the 404 Not Found status code. A soft 404 returns 200 OK but shows error-like or empty content, so Google has to guess that the page is missing.
Are soft 404s bad for SEO?
They are not a penalty, but those pages will not rank and they waste crawling. Fix the status code, redirect the URL or improve the content.
Related SEO terms
A 404 error is the HTTP status a server returns when a requested page does not exist. It is normal, but broken links to 404s are worth fixing.
HTTP status codes are three-digit numbers a server returns with each response to say whether a request worked, moved or failed.
Thin content is a page with little or no useful content of its own, such as near-empty pages, copied text or doorway pages.
Crawl budget is the set of URLs Google can and wants to crawl on a site. It only becomes a constraint on very large or fast-changing sites.
JavaScript SEO is the work of making sure search engines can crawl, render and index content and links that a site builds with JavaScript.
A 301 redirect permanently sends visitors and search engines from one URL to another and tells Google the new URL should be indexed.