Gary Illyes of Google outlined two critical problems with soft 404 errors. When a website displays a “200 OK” status, yet Google believes it should be showing a “404 Not Found” message, this is known as a soft 404 mistake. This is why they are an issue:
Wastes Crawl Budget: Your website may have fewer resources than Google’s crawlers. Time is better spent on useful, worthwhile sites than pointless ones.
Not Found in Search: Because they are filtered out during indexing, pages with soft 404 errors are unlikely to appear in Google Search results.
Gary explained this on LinkedIn using the following analogy: Imagine visiting a coffee shop and discovering that they are out of every item you desire despite what the menu claims to be available. It is time-consuming and irritating. Similar behavior occurs with crawlers, which waste resources on sites that return “200 OK” but are errors by checking them repeatedly.
In conclusion, search engines are aware of the distinction, even if visitors may not, and it can negatively impact your site’s effectiveness and exposure.
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