What are soft 404 pages?
A soft 404 is a URL that returns a page telling the user that the page does not exist and also a 200 (success) status code. In some cases, it might be a page with little or no content (for example, a sparsely populated or empty page). A success status code tells search engines that there’s a real page at that URL.
How do you handle a soft 404?
How to fix soft 404 errors
- Check that the page is indeed a soft 404 or a false alarm.
- Configure your server to return the proper not found error code (404/410)
- Improve the page and request indexing.
- Redirect the page using a 301 redirection.
- Keep the page on your site but de-index it from search engines.
What does a soft 404 mean on Google?
What is a Soft 404 Error? According to Google: “A soft 404 means that a URL on your site returns a page telling the user that the page does not exist and also a 200-level (success) code to the browser.”
Is the 404 a normal part of the web?
A: 404s are a perfectly normal part of the web; the Internet is always changing, new content is born, old content dies, and when it dies it (ideally) returns a 404 HTTP response code. Search engines are aware of this; we have 404 errors on our own sites, as you can see above, and we find them all over the web.
What to do when you get a 404 on Google?
What Google’s own guidelines suggest is in addition to returning a 404 response code, you should also display a custom 404 page that provides useful information to help visitors navigate your site. This might be a page listing your most popular pages, blog posts, or products.
When do I need to remove a 404 from my website?
It’s designed for urgent removal requests only, and using it isn’t necessary when a URL already returns a 404, as such a URL will drop out of our search results naturally over time. See the bottom half of this blog post for more details on what the URL removal tool can and can’t do for you.