Definition
A soft 404 is a page that tells visitors it doesn't exist or has no content but returns a 200 success status, instead of a proper 404 or 410.
Soft 404 explained
When a page is missing, the server should return a 404 (not found) or 410 (gone) status code. A soft 404 happens when the server returns 200 (OK) while showing an error message, an empty search result, an out-of-stock notice with nothing else, or a redirect to the homepage for every missing URL.
Search engines try to detect these and report them in Google Search Console's page indexing report as soft 404s. They waste crawl effort, can keep useless pages in the index, and confuse reporting, because your analytics shows successful page views for pages that are effectively errors.
Fix them by returning the correct status: a real 404 or 410 for pages that are gone, a 301 redirect to a closely matching page when one exists, and real content for pages that should stay. For e-commerce, keep useful out-of-stock product pages live with alternatives rather than turning them into empty shells.
Example
Your store redirects every discontinued product URL to the homepage. Google reports them as soft 404s, since the homepage isn't a replacement. Redirecting each one to its closest category, and returning 410 for items with no match, clears the errors.
Why it matters
Correct status codes help search engines spend their crawling on real pages and keep reports accurate.
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Related terms
- 404 errorA 404 error is the status code a server returns when a requested page doesn't exist; a 410 means it was removed deliberately and won't return.
- 301 redirectA 301 redirect is a permanent redirect: the server tells browsers and search engines that a URL has moved for good and sends them to the new address.
- Crawl budgetCrawl budget is the number of URLs a search engine can and wants to crawl on a site in a given time, set by crawl capacity and crawl demand.
- Google Search ConsoleGoogle Search Console is Google's free tool showing how a site performs in Search, which pages are indexed, and technical problems Google finds.