Guidelines for Blogger Post - 6. "Soft 404" - Solution - How to rectify the issue?

Answer

A "Soft 404" error occurs when a non-existent page returns a 200 OK status code instead of a proper 404 Not Found. This can confuse search engines and affect your website's SEO. Here's how to fix it:

  1. Set Up a Proper 404 or 410 Error Code:
    Ensure your webserver returns a 404 (Not Found) or 410 (Gone) status for pages that no longer exist [4].

  2. Use 301 Redirects:
    If the content has been moved, implement a 301 permanent redirect to the new page to preserve the link equity [2].

  3. Add Content to Thin Pages:
    If a page with minimal content is flagged as a soft 404, improve it by adding valuable content [3].

  4. Check and Update Server Response Codes:
    Verify that your server is correctly configured to return the appropriate response codes for invalid pages [5].

  5. Submit the Fix to Google:
    Once you've corrected the issue, resubmit the affected pages to Google Search Console for re-indexing [5].

🌐 Sources

  1. wscubetech.com - Soft 404 Errors: What Are These and How to Fix Them?
  2. neilpatel.com - What Are Soft 404s and How to Fix Them
  3. rockcontent.com - Soft 404 Error: How To Fix It to Protect your Rankings?
  4. developers.google.com - Crawl Errors now reports soft 404s
  5. embarque.io - How We Fix and Prevent Soft 404 on Google Search Console
  6. seobase.com - How To Handle Soft 404 Errors: SEO Best Practices