404 Errors and Soft 404s: Fixing Them
7 min
Classic 404s inform Google that a page has disappeared, which is normal for obsolete pages. Soft 404s — pages that return a 200 code but display empty content or an error message — deceive Googlebot and waste the crawl budget. Both must be addressed quickly as soon as they appear.
Error pages are inevitable in the life of a website. The key is not to avoid them entirely but to detect them quickly, treat them with the right method, and prevent them from accumulating silently for months.
404 and soft 404: what is the difference
A classic 404 error is returned by the server with HTTP code 404. Googlebot understands that the page no longer exists and progressively removes it from the index. If the page had backlinks, their authority is lost.
A soft 404 is more insidious: the page returns an HTTP 200 code (success) but displays insufficient content or an error message. Google detects the problem but cannot flag it via standard HTTP codes. These pages remain in the index and waste the crawl budget.
- Out-of-stock product page displaying 'Product unavailable' with a 200 code.
- Search page with no results returning a 200 code.
- Dynamically generated page with empty content due to a template error.
- Empty category page after all products are removed.
How to detect 404s and soft 404s
Search Console is the first tool to consult: the 'Page Indexing' report explicitly lists URLs flagged as soft 404s or 404 errors, with detection dates.
For a complete audit, Screaming Frog crawls your site and identifies all pages returning a 4xx code. For soft 404s, manual analysis or the Google Search Console API is required because they are invisible in HTTP codes.
Handling 404s depending on context
If the page has been permanently deleted and has no significant backlinks, a 404 is the appropriate response. Google will process it and remove the page from the index within a few weeks.
If the page has backlinks or received organic traffic, redirect it with a 301 to the most relevant page on the site: a parent category, a replacement article, or the home page as a last resort.
For soft 404s on out-of-stock product pages, consider keeping the page with alternative content (similar products, out-of-stock notice, back-in-stock alert option) rather than deleting it.
On e-commerce sites active for more than 3 years, an average of 5 to 20% of URLs in Google's index are in error or soft 404, often undetected without an audit.
Sector studies 2025-2026 on technical e-commerce audits
Preventing error accumulation
Set up automatic monthly monitoring via Search Console or an SEO monitoring tool. 404s accumulate silently with every page deletion, URL modification, or CMS restructuring.
During each deployment or migration, systematically validate a complete crawl before and after to identify all newly introduced errors. A 10-minute checklist after each deployment is enough to avoid most problems.
FAQ
Does a 404 penalize the ranking of other pages on the site?
Not directly. A certain number of 404s is normal and expected. However, a massive accumulation wastes the crawl budget and can delay the indexing of your new pages if Googlebot spends too much time on dead URLs.
Should you create a custom 404 page?
Yes, for user experience. A good 404 page offers an internal search engine, the site's most popular pages, and a link to the home page. It reduces the abandonment rate of visitors who land on a dead URL.
How does Google handle a 404 URL that becomes accessible again?
Google reindexes it at the next crawl, generally within 2 to 4 weeks. If the page had been removed from the index, it gradually recovers its positions, especially if backlinks pointing to it are still active.