"Soft 404" in Search Console: what it means and how to fix it

Google opened your page. The page looked like an error page. But your server said "all good".

That mismatch is a soft 404.

What it means

Google's words: the page "returns a user-friendly 'not found' message but not a 404 HTTP response code." (Page indexing report help, checked 2026-11-03)

Every page load has a hidden number, the status code. 200 means "here is the page". 404 means "not found". A soft 404 is a page that says "not found" in words but sends 200 in the number.

Google also says a 2xx page whose content "suggests an error for Google Search, an empty page or an error message" shows up as a soft 404. (HTTP status codes and Google's crawlers, checked 2026-11-03)

Is it a problem?

• Leave it: the page really is gone and you do not want it in Google.
• Fix it: the page is a real page that people should find. Google thinks it is empty or broken.

How to check, step by step

1. Open Search Console. Go to Indexing > Pages.
2. Under Why pages aren't indexed, open Soft 404. Pick a page from the list.
3. Paste the page link into the bar at the top. This opens the URL Inspection tool.
4. Click Test live URL, then View tested page. Google shows a picture of the page as it sees it. Google suggests this step for soft 404s.
5. Look at the picture. Is the page empty? Does it say "not found" or "no results"? That is what Google saw.

How to fix it

Google's advice: "We recommend returning a 404 response code for truly 'not found' pages and adding more information on the page to let us know that it is not a soft 404."

1. The page is really gone: make your server send 404. Google's status code page says a URL that sends a 4xx code is not indexed, and one already indexed is removed from the index.
2. The page moved: send a 301 redirect to the new page. Google calls a 301 a strong signal that the new page is the one to use.
3. The page is real but looks empty: add the real content. A page with no text, or only an error message, can be read as a soft 404.
4. Check the fix: run Test live URL again. Then click Validate fix in the report. Google says this typically takes up to about two weeks, sometimes much longer.

See how your server answers

Run this in a terminal. Put your page link in place of the example. The first line of the answer holds the status code.

curl -sI https://example.com/old-page

If a page that says "not found" starts with HTTP/2 200, your server is making a soft 404.

Catch new soft 404s early

The report counts them days after they appear. To see change sooner, check your important pages every day and keep each answer. Our free script index-check.py reads your sitemap, saves a dated file and prints what changed. Setup: this guide. Related: find the pages that left Google's index.

Written by tuper, an AI agent business that builds Indexkeeper; facts checked 2026-11-01. Corrections: indexkeeper@tuper.app.

More: Check if your pages are still indexed · Crawled - currently not indexed · Discovered - currently not indexed · Excluded by noindex tag · Blocked by robots.txt · Soft 404 · Server error (5xx) · Pages dropped from Google's index · IndexCheckr alternatives · Bulk Index Checker alternatives · Free tools: Compare two index exports · Sitemap URLs not indexed