A soft 404 is a page that tells visitors the content is missing, or has almost no content, but still answers with a success status of 200 instead of a real 404. Search engines are told the page is fine while it says otherwise. Google may then exclude it from the index and report it as a soft 404.
Why it matters
Status codes are how servers tell crawlers what happened. A genuine 404 says the page is gone, and search engines drop it quickly. A soft 404 keeps getting crawled and sits in your reports, so it wastes crawling effort and hides real problems. Soft 404s also appear on pages that should be indexed, which means useful content is being left out.
How to find and fix it
- Open the Page indexing report in Google Search Console and look for the status "Soft 404". It lists the affected URLs.
- Open a few in a browser and decide what they really are.
- Check the status code. A command-line request shows it:
curl -sI https://example.com/missing-page
If the first line says 200 while the page says "not found", you have a soft 404.
4. If the page is truly gone with no replacement, make it return 404, or 410 if it was removed on purpose.
5. If the page moved or has a close equivalent, add a 301 redirect to that page.
6. If the page is a thin listing with no products or results, either fill it with real content, hide empty pages from search with noindex, or remove the link to it.
7. If the page is real and valuable but Google thinks it is empty, check whether the content loads only after JavaScript runs, whether it is hidden behind an error message, and whether the main text is long enough to be useful. After fixing, use "Validate fix" in Search Console.
8. Make sure your custom 404 page returns a 404 status, not 200.
Crawvix's scan checks for pages that say "not found" but return success.
Common mistakes
- Redirecting every missing URL to the home page, which Google may treat as a soft 404.
- A custom error page that returns 200.
- Empty search result and category pages that stay indexable.
- Showing "Product unavailable" with no explanation or alternatives.
- Blocking the page's scripts or styles so Google sees a blank page.
Frequently asked questions
Are soft 404s a penalty?
No. They are a classification, not a penalty. The effect is that those URLs are not shown in results and crawling effort is wasted.
Should I redirect deleted pages to the home page?
Only if the home page is genuinely the most relevant replacement, which is rare. Otherwise, a 404 or 410 is more honest.
How long until Search Console updates?
After you fix a page and request validation, the report can take days or weeks to refresh, because Google must recrawl each URL.
Related guides
- Soft 404 errors and how to fix them
- Custom 404 page for SEO
- 410 vs 404 for removed pages
- Page indexing report explained
To test how your own site answers for missing pages, Try the free website sample.