Term
Soft 404
A soft 404 is a page with no real content (out-of-stock product, empty search) that incorrectly returns HTTP 200 instead of 404/410. Google usually detects it and reports it in Search Console.
Soft 404 — explained in more detail
A soft 404 happens when the server returns 200 OK for a page that has no meaningful content or doesn’t truly exist. The browser sees a successful response, but the crawler finds only thin or missing content. Google classifies such URLs algorithmically as soft 404 and excludes them from the index — wasting crawl budget along the way.
Typical triggers: empty internal-search result pages, sold-out products with placeholder text, empty categories, or broken SPA routes that show “Not found” client-side while the server still returns 200.
Example / In practice
A shop removes a product and redirects /products/xyz to a generic “no longer available” page that responds with 200. Google declines to index dozens of such URLs and flags them under “Soft 404” in Search Console. The correct fix: a real 410 (Gone) for removed products, or a 301 to a relevant category.
Distinction from similar terms
A real 404 also returns HTTP 404 — clean and correctly handled by crawlers. A 410 Gone signals permanent removal and speeds up deindexing. A soft 404 is always a configuration error: the right status code solves it.
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301 Redirect
A 301 redirect is an HTTP status code permanently redirecting one URL to another — the standard for URL changes, domain moves and site migrations.
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