Everything you need to know about Soft 404s in SEO

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Soft 404

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Being well referenced on search engines is essential for increasing the visibility and popularity of your business. website.

Sometimes, however, certain errors can occur and damage your positioning.

These include the Soft 404This is a little-known problem that can have serious repercussions for your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy.

In this article, we'll explain what this error means and how to deal with it.

Definition of Soft 404

To fully understand the concept of Soft 404, we first need to define what a 404 error.

A 404 page is an error page that appears when the content you are looking for no longer exists or never existed. It generally indicates a broken link or deleted content. Visit HTTP code 404 therefore corresponds to the "Not Found" state, as indicated by the HTTP protocol.

Soft 404, on the other hand, is a variant of the 404 error, in which the server returns an HTTP code other than 404, generally a code of 200 (OK), even though the content of the requested page cannot be found or is unsuitable.

In other words, the server tells the search engine spiders that the page exists and that it is accessible, even though it is actually a irrelevant page or non-existent content.

How does a Soft 404 occur?

This error can occur in a number of situations:

1. 1. An empty results page after the user has performed a search on the site;
   2. Deleting a page without redirecting it to other relevant content;
   3. A URL submitted to search engines;
   4. Displaying a temporary page instead of the actual content.

Negative impact of Soft 404s on SEO and site performance

The main problem with Soft 404 pages is that they are poorly taken into account by search engines, particularly Google. Google considers these pages to be of no interest to Internet usersThis can have a negative impact on your site's overall ranking in the results.

What's more, when Googlebot explores pages that return 200 codes with little or no content, wasting crawl resources and reducing the quality of your site's indexing.

This can also lead to poor use of your indexed pages, as Google has less time to explore and index your relevant content.

Identifying and resolving Soft 404 problems

Fortunately, it is possible to detect and deal with Soft 404 errors in order to avoid their negative impact on natural referencing. Here are a few steps to follow:

Analysing Search Console reports

The first step is to use the Google Search Consolewhich allows you to quickly identify Soft 404 errors on your site. Go to the "Coverage" section and check for such errors. If you find any, take a close look at the URLs concerned and determine the causes of the problem.

Checking redirects

Make sure that all deleted or moved pages have been correctly redirected to relevant content, using the correct HTTP information codes (301 for a permanent redirect, 302 for a temporary redirect).

Using the correct HTTP code for 404 errors

If a page no longer exists or should not be indexed, make sure that it returns an HTTP 404 code, so that search engines understand that this is an error and do not attach any importance to this page.

Optimising empty results pages

If it is possible that searches carried out on your site lead to empty results, adapt them by adding, for example, suggestions for relevant content or links to other sections of your site. Also consider adding a search button to make it easier for your visitors to navigate your site.

In a nutshell

Soft 404 errors can be an obstacle to the success of your SEO strategy. To optimise your site as much as possible and avoid these errors, it is important to understand how they work and to take the necessary steps to resolve them.

By correcting broken links, using HTTP codes correctly and improving theuser experience on your site, you'll be doing everything you can to achieve optimum positioning in the search engines.