Soft 404s
type: TechArticle
description: A page that looks like a 'not found' message to a user but returns 200 OK to a crawler. Search engines treat soft 404s as a quality problem and often refuse to index them.
language: en
is part of: Web Specification Studio
author: Web Specification Studio
publisher: Web Specification Studio
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date modified: 2026-05-29T09:13:20.000Z
citation: Google Search Central — How HTTP status codes affect Google's crawlers
  type: CreativeWork
  publisher: Google Search Central
citation: RFC 9110 — 404 Not Found
  type: CreativeWork
  publisher: IETF
citation: MDN — HTTP response status codes
  type: CreativeWork
  publisher: MDN

Web Specification Studio
type: WebSite

Web Specification Studio
type: Organization

breadcrumb
type: BreadcrumbList
item list element: Home
  type: ListItem
  position: 1
  item: https://webspecification.com/
item list element: Spec
  type: ListItem
  position: 2
  item: https://webspecification.com/spec/
item list element: SEO
  type: ListItem
  position: 3
  item: https://webspecification.com/spec/seo/
item list element: Soft 404s
  type: ListItem
  position: 4
  item: https://webspecification.com/spec/seo/soft-404/