Soft 404 Errors: What They Mean and How to Fix Them

A soft 404 is a page that tells browsers it loaded successfully, with a 200 status code, while Google concludes the page has nothing useful on it or effectively does not exist. Search Console reports these under “Soft 404” in the Page indexing report, and Google generally keeps them out of search results.

The label sounds like a server error, but it is really a judgement about content. Google is saying: this URL claims to be a real page, but it looks like an error page, an empty page or a page with almost nothing on it. Fixing it means deciding whether the URL should exist and, if it should, giving it enough substance to be worth indexing.

Why soft 404s happen

Most soft 404s on business websites come from a short list of causes.

Missing pages that return 200 instead of 404. Some themes, page builders and custom setups show a “page not found” message while still sending a 200 status code. To a visitor it looks like an error. To Google it looks like a real page with error-like content, which is exactly the definition of a soft 404.

Empty category, tag or search pages. An ecommerce category with no products, a blog tag with no posts or an internal search results page with no results often triggers the status.

Out-of-stock or discontinued products. When a product page is stripped back to “This product is unavailable” with no description, Google may treat it as a soft 404.

Thin pages that look templated. Location pages, service variations or programmatic pages with very little unique text can be classified this way, especially if most of the visible content is navigation and footer.

Redirects to irrelevant pages. Redirecting many removed URLs to the homepage is a common shortcut. Google often treats those redirects as soft 404s because the destination does not replace what the old page offered.

Rendering problems. If the main content loads through JavaScript and fails for Googlebot, Google may see an almost empty page. The URL Inspection tool’s rendered screenshot shows what Google actually saw.

How to diagnose a soft 404

Open the Soft 404 list in Search Console and inspect a sample of URLs. For each one, check three things.

First, what does the page look like to a visitor right now? It may already have been fixed or removed.

Second, what status code does it return? A browser extension or an online header checker will show this. If a “not found” page returns 200, the problem is technical.

Third, what did Google render? Use “Test live URL” in URL Inspection and view the screenshot and HTML. If the content is missing there but visible in your browser, you are looking at a rendering issue.

Then group the affected URLs by type. A list of 200 soft 404s usually turns out to be three or four patterns, such as empty tag archives, discontinued products and old redirected blog posts.

Fixes by cause

The page should not exist

Return a real 404 or 410 status code. This is the correct, honest signal and does not harm the rest of the site. A 404 for a genuinely removed page is normal. If a replacement exists that serves the same purpose, a 301 redirect to that specific page is better.

The page should exist but is thin

Add the content a visitor would need. For a location page, that might be local service details, areas covered, relevant projects and specific questions. For a category, it might be products plus a short buying guide. If you cannot think of anything useful to add, the page probably should not be a separate URL.

Empty archives and filters

Noindex empty tag pages or remove the tags entirely. For ecommerce categories that are temporarily empty, either keep them populated with related products or noindex them until stock returns. Internal search results should generally not be indexable at all.

Discontinued products

If a close replacement exists, redirect to it. If the product is gone with no equivalent, a 404 or 410 is acceptable. If it will return, keep the page with full product information and an availability notice rather than stripping it.

Mass redirects to the homepage

Map removed URLs to their closest relevant pages. Where no relevant page exists, let them return 404. A homepage redirect rarely passes the value people hope it will.

Rendering failures

Make sure the main content is present in the initial HTML or renders reliably for Googlebot. Check that JavaScript and API resources are not blocked in robots.txt and that the page does not depend on user interaction to load content.

Validating the fix

Once a pattern is fixed, use “Validate fix” in the Soft 404 report. Google will recrawl the affected URLs over the following days or weeks. Validation can fail partially if some URLs in the group still match the pattern, so spot-check before starting it.

If the URLs were thin pages you improved, also watch whether they move into the indexed group and start receiving impressions. That is the real outcome you want.

Do soft 404s hurt the rest of the site?

A handful of soft 404s is normal and does not affect other pages. Large numbers can waste crawl attention and may point to a broader thin-content pattern that affects how Google views a section of the site. They are worth fixing when they involve pages you want ranked, or when the volume suggests a template problem.

Soft 404s often appear alongside other indexing statuses. If you are working through the Page indexing report, our guides to crawled, currently not indexed and discovered, currently not indexed cover the related cases.

Cleaning up indexing problems at the source

Soft 404s are usually symptoms of how a site generates pages: themes that mishandle missing URLs, archives that create empty pages, or migrations that redirected everything to the homepage. Fixing the pattern prevents the list from refilling.

If your Page indexing report is full of statuses you are not sure how to prioritise, our technical SEO service can work through them by pattern and fix the templates and settings behind them.