Digital Lexicon Hub

A URL that returns a success status code, usually 200, while its content tells users the page does not exist or is empty.

Soft 404s waste crawl requests on pages that will not be indexed and can hide real problems, such as discontinued products or empty category pages that still receive internal links and paid traffic.

Search Console lists 1,150 soft 404s on an online store's discontinued product URLs. The team returns 410 for products with no replacement, adds 301 redirects for 90 URLs with direct successor models, and validates the fix in the Page indexing report.

Google infers soft 404s from content, so thin but valid pages such as short listings or search results with few items can be misclassified. Redirecting every missing URL to the homepage often creates new soft 404s instead of solving them.

Servers signal a missing page with a 404 or 410 status code, but many CMS templates render a not-found message while still sending 200 OK. Because a 2xx response tells crawlers the content is valid, Google evaluates the rendered page and reports a soft 404 in the Page indexing report when it looks empty or like an error. Fixes are to send a real 404 or 410, use a 301 Redirect only when an equivalent page exists, or add substantive content so the URL meets Indexability expectations.