A soft 404 is a page that tells the user it does not exist while telling the server it does. The visitor sees “product not found” or an empty results page; the response header says 200 OK.
That contradiction is the whole problem. Search engines keep crawling and considering a URL that returns success, even though there is nothing there worth indexing.
Why it matters
- Crawl capacity is spent repeatedly on URLs that will never be useful. On large sites this is significant.
- Empty or near-empty pages can accumulate in the index as thin content.
- Genuinely removed content is never cleanly dropped, because nothing tells search engines it is gone.
- Diagnosis gets harder, because your logs show successes where there are failures.
Where soft 404s come from
Removed products and pages returning a template
The most common source in ecommerce. A discontinued product returns a friendly “this product is no longer available” page with a 200 status. Multiply by a churning catalogue and it grows quickly.
Empty category, search and filter results
A category with no products in stock, or a filter combination matching nothing, still renders successfully. These are usually generated in large numbers by faceted navigation.
Redirecting everything to the homepage
A frequent shortcut during migrations. Redirecting an unmatched URL to the homepage is treated as a soft 404, because the destination does not correspond to the request. It also discards the signal you were trying to preserve.
JavaScript that fails to populate
Where content loads client-side and the request fails, the page renders empty with a 200 status.
Thin pages that look empty
Occasionally a real page with very little content is classified as a soft 404 simply because there is not enough on it to indicate otherwise.
Fixing it by cause
- Genuinely gone, no replacement: return 404, or 410 if you want to signal permanence.
- Gone, with a close equivalent: 301 to that specific equivalent, not to the homepage.
- Temporarily out of stock: keep the page, return 200, and say when it returns. This is not a soft 404 if the page has real content.
- Empty category: either return 404, or ensure it always has content by adjusting the merchandising rules.
- Empty filter results: these should generally not be crawlable at all.
- Thin but legitimate: add enough substance for the page to justify itself.
Finding them
- The Page indexing report lists them directly under Soft 404.
- Crawl the site and look for 200 responses with very small content sizes.
- Search for template phrases such as “no products found” or “page not found” across your crawl.
- Check redirect targets, since bulk redirects to the homepage produce them at scale.
- Review out-of-stock handling, which is where ecommerce sites generate most of them.
Frequently asked questions
Should out-of-stock products return 404?
Not if the product is returning. Keep the page with real content and clear availability information. Return 404 or 410 only when the product is genuinely discontinued with no equivalent.
Why not redirect everything to the homepage?
Because it is treated as a soft 404 rather than as a redirect, so you gain nothing and lose the signal from the original URL. Redirect to a relevant destination, or return 404 honestly.
Is a 404 bad for SEO?
No. A correct 404 for something that does not exist is the right response and causes no harm. What causes harm is pretending a missing page exists, which is exactly what a soft 404 does.
404 or 410?
410 signals permanent removal and tends to drop the URL faster. 404 is fine and is the safer default where you are unsure whether the content might return.
Consulting CTA
If your crawl is being consumed by pages that report success but contain nothing, book an SEO consultation for a status code and crawl efficiency review.