What Is a Soft 404, and How Do You Fix One on Your Site?

What is a soft 404, and how do you fix one on your site?

A soft 404 is a URL that tells visitors the page does not exist, or shows almost nothing, while still returning a 200 success code. Fix it by returning a real 404 or 410 when the page is gone, a 301 redirect when it moved, or by repairing the page when Google flagged it by mistake.

Soft 404s show up in the Page indexing report in Google Search Console, and they confuse a lot of site owners. The page loads in a browser. Nothing looks broken. Yet Google treats it as if it were missing.

This article is for marketers and founders running a B2B site, especially on a CMS like Webflow, who see soft 404 warnings and want to know which ones matter and how to fix them. The fix is usually simple once you know which of three cases you are in.

Why does Google call a working page a soft 404?

Google flags a soft 404 when the content looks like an error or an empty page even though the server says everything is fine. In its crawling error guidance, Google describes a soft 404 as a URL that returns a page telling the user it does not exist, along with a 200 success code.

The mismatch is the problem. The status code says success, but the content says failure. Google reads both signals and trusts the content, so it reports the page as a soft 404 rather than indexing it as a normal page.

Google's HTTP status code documentation also says that if the content suggests an error, such as an empty page or an error message, Search Console will show a soft 404 error. So a page does not have to say not found to be flagged. Very thin or blank pages can trip the same signal.

What causes soft 404s on a B2B website?

The most common causes are custom not found pages that return a 200 code, empty CMS pages such as a category with no posts, search or filter pages with no results, and pages that fail to render for Googlebot because scripts or resources do not load. Each cause needs a different fix.

Empty CMS pages are the one I see most on content heavy sites. A CMS can create a page for every category or tag automatically. When a category has no items yet, the page renders a header and nothing else. To a crawler, that looks like an error page.

Rendering failures are the sneaky case. The page works in your browser because your browser runs every script. If a key script is blocked, slow, or too large, Googlebot may see a blank shell. The page is fine for humans and empty for Google.

Old pages that were replaced but never redirected also cause trouble. Someone deletes a product page and replaces it with a short notice saying the product is gone, while the server still returns success.

How do you find which soft 404s actually matter?

Open the Page indexing report in Search Console, filter to the soft 404 reason, and export the list. Sort the URLs into three groups: pages that should not exist, pages that moved, and pages that should be indexed. Only the third group is a real problem for traffic, so check it first.

Many soft 404s are harmless. If a URL is an empty filter page nobody needs in search, Google declining to index it is fine. The fix there is cleanup, not urgency.

The URLs that matter are pages you want to rank, such as service pages, case studies, or blog posts. If one of those is flagged, something is wrong with how it renders or how much content it shows. Those deserve immediate attention.

A spike in the count is also worth a look. I explain how to read sudden changes in what a 404 spike in Search Console means, and the same thinking applies to soft 404s.

What should you do when the page is gone for good?

Return a real 404 or 410 status code. Google's guidance says that when a page and its content are no longer available, the server should return one of those codes. Google also says URLs that return a 4xx code are not indexed, and already indexed ones are removed.

Keep a helpful custom not found page for visitors, with links to your main sections and a search option. Google notes that custom 404 pages are created for users, and that the server should still return a 404 status so those pages are not indexed. The page can be friendly. The status code must be honest.

If you are unsure whether to use 404 or 410, my post on whether a deleted page should return 404 or 410 covers the trade-off. For most B2B sites, a plain 404 works well.

What should you do when the content moved?

Set up a 301 permanent redirect from the old URL to the closest matching new page. Google's guidance recommends a 301 when the page or content now lives somewhere else. Then use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to confirm the old URL actually returns the redirect and the new page loads correctly.

Redirect to a genuinely related page. Sending every old URL to the homepage is tempting, but a page that does not match what the visitor wanted can itself look like a soft 404. A product page should redirect to its replacement product or category, not to a generic landing page.

On Webflow, you can add 301 redirects without code. Webflow's help center documents the current steps and any plan requirements, so check it before you start. Keep a simple list of every redirect you add, with the date and reason, so future site changes do not create redirect chains.

What if Google flagged a page that should be indexed?

Inspect the URL in Search Console and look at the rendered page and the returned status code. Google says pages wrongly flagged as soft 404 likely did not load properly for Googlebot or were missing critical resources. Fix blocked or slow resources, or add real content if the page is too thin to stand alone.

Start with the screenshot in URL Inspection. If the rendered page is blank or shows an error message, rendering is the problem. Look for scripts or files that are blocked by robots.txt, fail to load, or take too long. Google lists blocked resources, too many resources, server errors, and slow or very large files as possible causes.

If the page renders fine but has almost no text, the problem is thinness. Add substance. A case study page with only a logo and a quote can be flagged. A few paragraphs on the problem, the approach, and the result usually solve it.

For empty CMS category pages, either add items, hide the page until it has content, or keep it out of the index. My post on whether to noindex Webflow category pages walks through that decision.

How do you confirm the fix worked?

After fixing the pages, inspect each important URL with the URL Inspection tool to confirm it returns the expected status code or content. Then ask Search Console to recheck the issue. Search Console help explains how to request validation for a reported issue, and rechecks can take days or weeks to finish.

Validation is not instant, so do not panic if the count stays high for a while. Track the trend over a month rather than day to day.

Also prevent new soft 404s. Add a step to your publishing checklist that checks new CMS templates for empty states, and confirm your custom not found page returns a real 404. Prevention is cheaper than cleanup.

What should you do next?

Export your soft 404 list from Search Console this week and sort every URL into gone, moved, or should be indexed. Return 404 or 410 for the first group, add 301 redirects for the second, and inspect and repair the third. Then validate the fix and add an empty state check to your publishing process.

Soft 404s look technical, but they are really about honesty between your server and your content. When the status code matches what the page shows, Google can index what you want and drop what you do not.

If you want help auditing your site's indexing issues or cleaning up a CMS that creates thin pages, reach out. I build websites and the automations behind them for lead generation, and technical SEO is part of every build. Let's chat.