Soft 404
A soft 404 is when missing content returns 200 or is redirected to an irrelevant page. It creates indexing confusion and quality issues.
Definition
A soft 404 is when search engines treat a page as ‘not found’ even though it doesn’t return a 404 status — for example, missing pages returning 200 or redirecting everything to the homepage. This reduces trust in your responses.
Why it matters
- Indexing confusion: wrong URLs may get indexed
- Crawl waste: bots keep fetching useless pages
- Quality signals: many soft 404s reduce site trust
How to implement
- Return 404/410 for missing pages, not homepage redirects
- Serve a helpful 404 UI but keep the 404 status
- Remove invalid URLs from sitemaps and internal links
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Tutorials
FAQ
Common questions about this term.