Soft 404
A soft 404 occurs when a page returns an HTTP 200 (success) status code — indicating the page exists — but displays content that effectively communicates that the requested resource is not found or has no meaningful content. Common examples include "Product not found," "No results for your search," empty category pages, or placeholder pages that have not been properly configured to return a 404 or redirect.
Soft 404s are problematic because they confuse search engines: the server says the page is valid, but the content says it isn't. Google's crawlers are sophisticated enough to detect soft 404s and may exclude them from the index, but they still waste crawl budget during discovery. Proper handling involves either returning a genuine 404 status code, a 301 redirect to a relevant page, or ensuring the page serves meaningful, indexable content.
Why it matters for SEO
Soft 404s waste crawl budget and pollute the index with low-value or empty pages, diluting overall site quality signals. They are often harder to detect than hard 404s because server logs and basic crawlers only see the 200 status code, requiring specialized auditing tools or Google Search Console to surface them.
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