How can a soft 404 error hurt your business?

Ever wonder why some pages on your site don’t show up in Google search even though they seem fine to you? It could be a soft 404 error. this is a situation where your site returns a “200 OK” status, so technically the page exists, but the content signals it doesn’t. Google treats these pages as low-value and may de-index them, which can harm your SEO, waste crawl budget, and create a frustrating user experience. We’ll take a closer look at soft 404 errors.

Contents

1. What is a soft 404 error?
2. Possible causes for a soft 404 error
3. Can a Soft 404 error impact a website’s SEO?
4. Finding and fixing soft 404 errors
5. When the content for a soft 404 error page exists
6. Summary
7. Soft 404 FAQ

What is a Soft 404 error?

• This is a “page not found” error.
• The visitor sees a 404 error and acts accordingly however the search engine crawl bot sees something different, a 200 OK and continues to crawl the page using up crawl resources o your site (crawl budget).

Possible causes of a soft 404 error

1. Misspelling in URLs
2. Problems with the server

Soft 404 error is conveyed to the user but not to the Google crawl bot.    The page is still crawled and indexed on SERP.

Soft 404 is not an official status.  It is created to alert the website owner.  Google and search engines continue to crawl these pages until you, the website owner, takes some action.

Hard, Regular 404 error

This error code is sent to both page visitor and search engine.  It tells both the search engine and visitor that the page does not exist.

Can a Soft 404 error impact a website’s visibility?

The visitor sees the 404 error but the search engine sees a 200 OK status giving the search engine the OK to crawl the page. When there are a lot of soft 404s you’re using a lot of your crawl budget which implies fewer pages are crawled leading to fewer and poorer SERP rankings.

Problems caused by Soft 404 errors

1. If the Googlebot crawls a pge with a soft 404 and finds content on the page is NOT missing, it might think your site is serving fake 404 errors leading to the site being penalized.
2. Poor user experience since users see a 404 error.
3. Users may leave the site if they see a 404 error.
4. They take up band width.

Finding and fixing soft 404 errors

Soft 404s are not obvious to website owners.  Use GSC to help identify soft 404s.  How do you do this?

Go to “coverage” in GSC and a soft 404 will be labeled as “soft 404”

Screaming Frog can also be used to find them.  How?

Crawl the site with Screaming Frog.  Then go to “Response codes” and look for the appropriate error.

If the page doesn’t exist, set up a proper 404 or 410 error page.  There is no real difference between a 404 and a 410 page.  A 404-error page is a good branding opportunity, so make the most of it.

When the content for a soft 404 error page exists

Sometimes the content exists for a soft 404 pate.  This is usually the case when the content is short or irrelevant.  If the page is necessary, add more content to th page.  Add engaging and helpful content.  Consider adding the following:

• Images
• Charts
• Diagrams
• Data driven content.

When the page has been moved

1. If the page has been moved, set up a 301 redirect. 
2. When content from pages is combined or moved around, set up a redirect asap.
3. If a soft 404 results, set up a permanent 301 redirect.

Possible Causes for a soft 404 error

• The page been moved to a new location and a redirect has not been set up.
• Poor content on the page
• Pages that return a 404 error even though they exist

Website traffic and soft 404 errors

The more soft 404s you have the more time crawlers spend crawling “non-visible” pages to visitors. Thus, resolving soft 404s means crawlers can focus more on the active content pages resulting in more content appearing in SERP, increasing the probability of website traffic.

Regular 404 vs soft 404

Regular 404 errors deliver a 404 error to the crawler and the visitors.

Soft 404 errors deliver a 200 OK status to the crawler so it continues to crawl the page however the visitor is given a 404-error message.

Are you penalized for a soft 404?

No. But there are consequences as mentioned above, including lower visibility on search engines results pages and poor user experience.

Do 404s affect SEO?

Yes. 

• If a crawl bot encounters a 404 page, it may assume the page doesn’t exist and stop crawling the site. 
• If the users click on a 404 page, they may assume the page doesn’t exist and leave the site.

Finding soft 404 errors

• If the page doesn’t exit, creating customized 404 pages or 410 error.
  • A 404 error tells the user the page doesn’t exist.   404.html
  • A 410 error tells the user the page has been permanently moved.  410.html
• If the page does exist and returning a soft 404 error, improve the content on the page and reindex.
• If the page was moved to a new location, set up a 301 redirect.
  • A 301 redirect tells the users the pae has been permanently moved to a new location.  301.html

Summary

Soft 404 errors might not show up with flashing red warnings, but they can quietly weaken your website’s SEO performance over time. These are the pages that appear live but don’t offer meaningful or expected content. The result is search engines treat them as errors, even if you don’t see one on the front end.

Left unchecked, soft 404s can waste your crawl budget, lower your site’s credibility, and prevent valuable content from being indexed. Fortunately, they are fixable. By reviewing your Search Console data, removing or redirecting weak pages, and ensuring your content is clear and helpful, you can clean up these issues and strengthen your overall site health.

Soft 404 FAQ

References:

• https://neilpatel.com/blog/soft-404s
• https://www.searchenginejournal.com/technical-seo/404-vs-soft-404-errors