What is a soft 404?

Soft 404, explained

Google's Page indexing report describes a soft 404 as a page that returns a user-friendly "not found" message without a 404 HTTP response code. Google also flags pages that are mostly empty, or whose content suggests an error, even if you didn't mean them as errors. Either way, the page won't be indexed as a normal result.

The common causes are technical. Single-page apps render "product not found" in the browser while the server has already sent 200. Catch-all routes return a friendly template for any path. Search or filter pages with zero results return 200. Out-of-stock or expired listings keep a nearly blank template. And redirecting many deleted URLs to the homepage can also be read as a soft 404, because the destination isn't a real replacement.

Google's recommended fix depends on the case. If the page is truly gone, return 404 or 410. If it moved, 301 it to the replacement. If it's a real page that Google misread, add enough content so it clearly isn't an error. For JavaScript apps, Google's JavaScript SEO guide suggests either redirecting to a URL where the server returns 404, or adding noindex to error states.

Soft 404s on programmatic pages are a quality warning. If Google thinks your generated pages look empty, it's usually because they are too thin.

Why it matters for founders

Soft 404s hide in plain sight: the page works in a browser, so nobody notices. Meanwhile Google either drops real pages it thinks are empty or keeps crawling junk URLs that should return 404.

Example

Your directory has a page for every category, including some with zero listings. Search Console flags them as soft 404s. You return 404 for empty categories and only generate pages once a category has listings.

Common mistakes

• Showing "not found" text on a page that returns 200.
• Mass-redirecting deleted pages to the homepage.
• Generating programmatic pages with no real content yet.
• Fixing the template but not the status code.