Soft 404.
A soft 404 is a page that reports the status code 200 ('everything is fine') to the browser and to Google but is empty, broken or non-existent in terms of content. Google recognises such pages and treats them like missing pages, but reports them separately in Search Console. Soft 404s are usually a technical error that wastes crawl budget and confuses visitors.
Soft 404 — Explained in Detail
Every web page responds to a request with an HTTP status code. 200 means the page exists and is being delivered. 404 means it does not exist, 410 that it has been permanently removed, and 301 that it has moved. A soft 404 occurs when this technical response does not match the content: the server reports 200, but the page says 'product not found', shows an empty search result or an almost empty template.
Google therefore checks not only the status code but also the content. If Google recognises that a page with status 200 is actually an error page, it is listed as 'Soft 404' in the page indexing report of Google Search Console and is not indexed. This is not a penalty but a correction: Google treats the page the way it should have responded.
Common causes are sold-out or deleted products in shops whose URL shows an empty product template; internal search result pages with no results; categories without entries; redirecting all missing pages to the homepage; and, on modern JavaScript websites, error pages that are only rendered in the browser while the server has already returned 200. This last case affects many single page applications, where the server delivers the same shell for every URL.
Soft 404s are rarely a ranking problem for the rest of the website, but they have real costs. Googlebot spends crawl budget on URLs without content, visitors land on empty pages, and analytics are distorted because error pages count as normal page views. The fix is almost always simple: the server should respond honestly.
Fixing soft 404s correctly
There is a suitable response for each reported URL. If the page no longer exists and there is no replacement, the server returns a genuine 404 error page or a 410. If there is a relevant successor, such as the follow-up model of a product, a 301 redirect points there, but not to the homepage across the board, because Google itself treats that kind of blanket redirect as a soft 404. If the page is actually fine but very thin, it needs more content.
With JavaScript frameworks, the status code has to be set on the server. In Next.js, for example, a page calls notFound() for missing data, and the server then responds with 404 instead of an empty template. We regularly find errors of this kind in a website audit; in new builds by our web development in Zurich, correct status handling is standard.
Example: an online shop with discontinued products
A typical case, described as an example: a Swiss bike shop removes models from its range every season. The old product URLs remain reachable but only show 'This product is not available'. After a few months, Search Console reports a growing number of soft 404s.
The fix is split by case: models with a successor redirect to the new model with a 301. Models without a successor but with visits remain as an archive page with technical data and a pointer to comparable models, which is genuine content. All others respond with 410. After the next crawl, the entries gradually disappear from the report.
Related Page
404 Error PageFrequently Asked Questions About Soft 404
A normal 404 is correct and unproblematic when a page does not exist. A soft 404 is a contradiction between status code and content. It rarely harms the rest of the website directly, but it costs crawling and confuses visitors and analytics, so it should be fixed.
Usually the content is very thin or resembles an error page, for example a category with zero products or a text such as 'no results'. Sometimes the actual content only loads via JavaScript and is not ready in time during rendering. Check the page with the URL inspection tool in Search Console.
Better not. Google generally treats mass redirects to the homepage as soft 404s, and visitors do not find what they were looking for there. Only redirect to pages with matching content; otherwise a genuine 404 or 410 is the right response.
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