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Indexation

Soft 404

A page that returns HTTP 200 but appears empty or 404-like to crawlers.

Definition

Soft 404s happen when a page returns HTTP 200 with content that signals "not found" — empty product pages, default empty-state copy, or templates that lost their data. Crawlers infer a 404 despite the 200 status. They consume crawl budget and can drag template quality scores down across an entire route family.

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