This translation has not been editorially reviewed yet. The German version is authoritative. Deutsche Fassung
Indexing
What Is a Soft-404 and Why Does It Harm Indexing?
A Soft-404 is a page that looks like an error page to visitors — “This page was not found” — but the search engine crawler with status 200 assures that everything is fine. The crawler takes it at its word, indexes an empty hit and comes back regularly to update it. Google specifically lists Soft-404 in Search Console because they cost crawl budget and dilute the quality of the appearance in the index. The indexing check pane reads the title and top of the text for each page that is checked, and reports if a 200 page calls itself nonexistent.
How recognition works
The measured page itself is checked, not an invented address – there is the own probe for the 404 behavior of the domain. At status 200, the check area reads the page title and the first approximately 1,500 characters of visible text; Scripts and styles are removed beforehand so that a “404” in an analysis script does not trigger a false alarm. If he finds there typical formulations – not found, does not exist, no longer available, page not found or a stand-alone 404 –, the result arises. It does not change the point value because the set of rules idx-v1 remains unchanged; it appears in the report and in the task list. A page that writes about error pages and explains the term may strike incorrectly; Therefore, the finding always names the page so that a person can classify it.
The correction: the correct status, not another text
The temptation is to change the text so that the finding disappears. This does not fix anything: the page remains a blank page with status 200. It's right to let the server tell the truth -- Status 404 if the address does not exist, or 410 if it has been permanently removed. If the content is elsewhere, a permanent forwarding with 301 to the new address is the best answer. editorial systems usually deliver error pages correctly; Soft-404 is usually created by own error pages that were created as normal pages, by single-page applications without a server-side status decision or by search results pages without hits that respond with 200.
- Have the error page shipped with status 404; In the editorial system, this is usually an attitude, not a separate page.
- Redirect removed content to the new address with 301 if there is one; Otherwise 410.
- Check search results and filter pages without hits: They should not be indexable or deliver 404.
- In the Google Search Console, see pages after the entry Soft 404 — it says what Google has already found.
