Soft 404 Content (200 that reads as 'not found')

search What we check

Whether a URL that returns HTTP 200 is actually a disguised 'not found' page (a CMS serving a 200 not-found template), detected from a not-found title/heading on a thin page.

build How to fix

1. 1 Return a real 404 (or 410) for content that no longer exists, instead of a 200 with a 'not found' page.
2. 2 A soft 404 keeps the dead URL in Bing's index and wastes crawl budget.
3. 3 If the page is a genuine empty state (e.g. zero search results), give it real, useful content rather than a not-found message.

menu_book Sources

• Bing Webmaster Guidelines open_in_new
• Google: Soft 404 errors open_in_new

link Related checks