Technical Definition
A soft 404 is when a page that should return a 404 status code instead returns 200 (OK). This confuses search engines because the page appears valid but has no useful content. Common causes: custom error pages without proper status codes, empty search result pages, out-of-stock product pages. Fix by returning proper 404/410 status codes or adding valuable content.
Simple Explanation (ELI13)
A soft 404 is when your website says 'everything is fine' but shows a 'page not found' message. It's like answering the phone and saying 'hello' but then having nothing to say. Google gets confused because the technical signal says 'OK' but the content says 'nothing here.' Make sure error pages actually return error codes.
Related Terms
404 Error, HTTP Status Codes, Index Coverage
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