Soft 404 – Glossary

A Soft 404 is a page that looks like an error or offers negligible value, but returns 200 O` instead of 404, so search engines treat it as an error‑like condition.

Soft 404 vs hard 404

A hard 404 returns 404 with a clear error page. A soft 404 returns 200 OK while the content is effectively an error or near empty, so it should not be indexed.

Common causes

• Empty category pages, or near-blank templates
• Product pages marked “out of stock” with no alternatives
• Placeholder landing pages with little or no content
• Aggressive parameter pages that create thin variants
• Auto-generated thin content

How search engines detect it

Search engines look for content patterns, user intent mismatch, very low-quality or near-empty pages, weak internal linking, and duplicate or boilerplate-heavy templates. Check how Google Search Console labels these in Indexing → Pages.

Impact

Wasted crawl budget, poor index quality, diluted internal linking signals, confusing user experience.

Quick checklist

• Verify status: return 404/410 for pages that shouldn’t exist, 200 only for valid content.
• Purpose check: does the page satisfy a real user intent and query?
• Content depth: provide unique copy, helpful alternatives, and internal links.
• Template logic: avoid empty shells, fail gracefully when data is missing.
• Canonicalization: point variants to the right canonical, or 301 to successors.

Examples

• Empty category: “/shirts/” has no items, shows a blank grid and no helpful links.
• Out‑of‑stock: product returns a 200 with a thin “unavailable” message, no related products.
• Parameter bloat: “?color=blue&size=xl&sort=random” generates boilerplate pages with negligible value.

Diagnosis workflow

1. Check Search Console for Soft 404 issues in Indexing → Pages.
2. Confirm HTTP status, ensure error‑like pages do not return 200 OK.
3. Evaluate intent and content depth, compare to similar live pages.
4. Inspect internal links, avoid orphaned or weakly linked pages.
5. Review template conditions, prevent thin or placeholder output.

Fixes and decision guide

• If the page should not exist, return 404 or 410.
• If it should exist, upgrade content to match intent, add helpful alternatives, ensure unique value.
• If it’s a variant of a canonical page, use rel=canonical correctly.
• If it’s a deprecated item with a successor, 301 redirect to the best alternative.
• If it is temporary or utility‑only, consider noindex.

Noindex vs 404

• Use 404/410 for pages that should not be available at all
• Use noindex for pages that must exist for users or systems, but should stay out of search

Best practices

• Serve accurate status codes
• Avoid publishing empty shells
• Prevent auto‑generated thin pages
• Design templates that fail gracefully (offer helpful alternatives)