Submitted URL Seems to be a Soft 404
Let's continue this series on Google Search Console errors.
We have already covered:
Today we are going to fix the “Submitted URL Seems to be a Soft 404” error.
If you have opened up the Google Search Console and you have seen something like this:
Then we are going to look at the most common causes of this issue and how you can fix them.
Grab a coffee let's get started.
What is a 404?
When you remove content from your website there are still links to this page on other sites.
When a user clicks on one of these links the request goes to your web server and the web server tries to find the page.
If the page no longer exists then the web server should return a 404 HTTP status code.
This is part of the HTTP standard and a 404 tells the browser that the page is no longer available.
Along with the 404 status code, your web server will also return a webpage. This lets the user know that the page is no longer available.
So how does a soft 404 differ?
What is a soft 404?
A soft 404 is when the user sees the webpage showing that the page is no longer available. Yet, instead of the browser receiving a 404 status, it receives a 200-level HTTP status code.
A 200-level HTTP status code tells the browser that the page request was successful. In other words, the web server found the page.
For a soft 404, two things are happening:
- the user is being told that the page is not found.
- the user's browser is being told the page is correct.
Very confusing.
And this is the reason for the error in Google Search Console. The two are contradicting each other.
So if the user sees that the page is not available why do we need to fix it?
Why should you fix a soft 404?
If the page should be a 404 then it is bad practice to return a 200-level code.
A 200-level success code tells the browser and search engines that the page is correct. This means that the page will end up in Google Search rankings.
Google has a web crawler called Googlebot that it uses to read your pages. As you can imagine reading every web page on the internet is a big job. Googlebot can't get around to all the pages every day.
So Google assigns a crawl budget to each website. The crawl budget is how much time Googlebot will spend on your site. Once the budget runs out Googlebot moves on to the next site.
You don't want to waste your crawl budget reading pages that are no longer available.
To tell Googlebot that the page has gone you can either:
- Send a 404 not found status code which lets Googlebot know the page is not found
- Send a 410 Gone status code meaning that the page has gone and is not coming back
- Send a 301 redirect to send the user to a replacement page
All of the above are acceptable solutions. Picking the right one will depend on the page and your website set up.
How to Fix the Submitted URL Seems to be a Soft 404
Sometimes Google Search Console will show this error by mistake.
Before we jump into how to fix the error we need to rule out some of the common false-positives of this error.
Search results pages with no results
Any search page which shows zero results and little content will flag as a soft 404.
For example, you may have a search box on your site.
When you enter a search term that finds no results the site can display a message like:
Not Found
Notice how this is like the message for a 404 HTTP status code.
Google will think these pages are a soft 404 when it sees messages like this.
To resolve this issue make sure to add more content to the page and change the wording for an empty search.
For example, the “0 search results found for this search term” is much clearer to a user and Google.
Add some extra content such as similar search terms and recent searches to bulk out the page.
Empty Product Category
I have seen e-commerce stores contain categories that should be full of products. Yet, when you click on them you get messages like:
No Products Found
The page is empty apart from this message and a header and footer.
If Google sees this type of page, much like the empty search results it will assume that this is a soft 404.
Instead, add alternative products or redirect the user to another category.
Little or No Content
Google may flag a page as a soft 404 if the page has very little or no content.
I have seen sites that have a dedicated page for each image on the site.
These pages are often a header, footer and image with no written content on the page.
If Google finds pages like this then they will think they are a soft 404 page.
All pages you want to add to Google Search should have some written content. Make sure that any pages with little content are either removed from your sitemap or add content to the page.
Mobile Friendly
Googlebot looks at your website like a smartphone does.
I have seen the soft 404 error appear when the website does not load when viewed as a smartphone. Instead of the normal page, the user sees a blank web page.
So Google treats this empty page as a soft 404.
This one is easy to test for as you can use Google's mobile-friendly test to check that your site loads.
If the page appears as expected then you are ok. If not, then this could be the cause of the issue.
The Page Should be a 404
The last common cause is the simplest, Google is correct.
The page should be a 404 and the web server is returning the incorrect status code.
There are two things that we need to do to fix this:
- Make sure that the web server is returning a 404, 410 or 301
- Remove the URL from the submitted sitemap.
You have also submitted this URL to Google. Most likely this is because the URL is in your sitemap which gets submitted to Google Search Console.
To fix this make sure that you remove the URL from the sitemap. If you are not sure where your sitemap is, then check out our sitemap location blog post.
Once the sitemap is up-to-date, add this back to Google Search Console.
Check that the Fix has Worked
Once you have fixed the page you can check that everything is working by using the URL Inspection Tool. This is a free tool provided by Google in the Search Console.
Once you load the URL it will show that there is currently an issue on the site:
You can then click the “TEST LIVE URL” button.
It will send Googlebot to the page and make sure that the status code is correct and the page contains content.
If you have fixed the error then the inspection tool will show that the page is working like this:
Wrapping Up
We have learned today what a 404 is and how this is different from a soft 404.
If you have a soft 404 that should be a 404 you need to either:
- Return a 404 HTTP status code
- Return a 410 HTTP status code
- Redirect the user to another page using a 300-level HTTP status code
And then remove the URL from your sitemap.
If you are seeing this error on pages that are not 404 pages then here are some common reasons:
- Search results pages with no results
- Empty Product Category
- Little or No Content
- Not Mobile Friendly
- The Page Should be a 404
Once you have identified the issue, apply the fix and test the changes. Use the Google Search Console URL inspection tool to verify that the page is working.
This post is part of a series on Google Search Console. Here are the articles so far: