What is a soft 404?
A soft 404 is a page that tells browsers and crawlers "200 OK, here is your page" while showing content that is effectively an error: a "not found" message, an empty search result, a product that no longer exists, or almost nothing at all. Google detects these by looking at the content and treats them like 404s, excluding them from the index. Search Console reports them as Soft 404 in the Pages report.
Soft 404s are a problem for two reasons. They waste crawling on pages with no value, and if a real page is flagged by mistake, it drops out of results.
How it works
Google compares what the page says with what its status code claims. Common triggers:
- A custom "page not found" template that returns 200 instead of 404.
- Redirecting many deleted URLs to the home page or an unrelated category. Google often treats irrelevant redirects as soft 404s.
- Empty category, tag, or search result pages with no items.
- Out-of-stock or expired product and listing pages with the main content removed.
- Pages whose main content fails to render because JavaScript or an API call errors out.
- Extremely thin pages with a template and almost no text.
The fix depends on the cause. If the page is truly gone, return a real 404 or 410. If it has moved, add a 301 to a relevant replacement. If the page is real and valuable, give it substantial content and make sure it renders for Googlebot.
Example
A store removes a discontinued grinder. Its URL still loads, returns 200, and shows only the header, "This product is unavailable", and the footer. Search Console later lists it as a soft 404.
Better options: keep the page with the product details and a clear note plus links to the replacement model; 301-redirect it to the direct successor; or return a 404 if nothing replaces it. For temporarily out-of-stock items, keep the full page and mark availability in Product schema.
In WordPress
WordPress itself returns correct 404 statuses for missing posts. Soft 404s usually come from plugins that "fix" 404s by redirecting everything to the home page, from empty taxonomy archives, and from WooCommerce products emptied instead of removed. Hydrogen SEO's Noindex Empty Archives setting (on by default) keeps empty terms out of the index and sitemap, and its Redirection Manager makes targeted redirects easy.
Common mistakes
- Installing a plugin that redirects all 404s to the home page.
- Returning 200 on the theme's 404 template after customization.
- Assuming Search Console is wrong without checking what Googlebot renders in URL Inspection.
Common questions
Is a soft 404 a penalty?
No. Google simply treats the URL as not found and leaves it out of the index. It becomes a problem only when a page you want indexed is flagged.
How do I fix a soft 404 in Search Console?
Return a real 404 or 410 for pages that are gone, 301-redirect moved pages to a relevant replacement, or add real content to pages that should be indexed. Then click Validate fix in the report.