Soft 404
Definition
A soft 404 is a URL that returns HTTP 200 OK but shows “not found” or empty content, misleading crawlers that rely on status codes.
By Vinespire Editorial Team, Editorial ·
This term is part of the full AI search glossary.
Full definition
True missing pages should use 404 or 410 status codes. Soft 404s often appear when frameworks serve a generic “page not found” template with 200, or when thin parameter URLs render empty shells. Search engines may treat them as errors and waste crawl budget discovering them.
Fix soft 404s by returning correct status codes, consolidating dead paths with redirects when appropriate, and avoiding indexable empty states. Monitor Search Console and crawl logs for patterns.
AI systems that fetch live pages may also trust a 200 response; soft 404s can inject useless or misleading “content” into retrieval. See Indexability, Crawl Budget, and Log File Analysis.
Example
https://example.com/products/retired-sku returns 200 with the text “Product not found” instead of HTTP 404; Google flags it as a soft 404.