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You see a sudden spike in “Soft 404” errors. What could cause this and how would you troubleshoot?

 A sudden spike in "Soft 404" errors in Google Search Console (GSC) usually means Googlebot is crawling pages that:

You see a sudden spike in “Soft 404” errors. What could cause this and how would you troubleshoot?

  • Return a 200 OK status (implying they exist),

  • But appear to contain little or no useful content,

  • So Google treats them as if they were 404s (not found).

⚠️ Common Causes of a Soft 404 Spike

1. Empty or Thin Pages

  • Newly generated pages (e.g. product listings, search results) with no real content.

  • CMS pages with missing or incomplete templates.

2. Broken or Mistyped Internal Links

  • Internal links pointing to non-existent or malformed URLs that still return 200 OK.

  • Missed typos in URLs that still trigger a blank or fallback template.

3. Recent Site Changes

  • URL structure changes (e.g., moved pages, new routing rules) without proper redirects.

  • CMS or server misconfigurations that route invalid URLs to generic templates.

4. Improper Error Handling

  • Server configured to return a 200 status for error pages instead of a 404 or 410.

  • Custom error pages not returning correct HTTP status codes.

5. Low-Quality Dynamic Pages

  • Pages created by query parameters, filters, or search results with no actual content.

  • Poorly implemented faceted navigation.

🔍 How to Troubleshoot a Soft 404 Spike

✅ Step 1: Review GSC for Affected URLs

  • Go to GSC → Coverage → Soft 404

  • Export the list of URLs showing the error.

✅ Step 2: Manually Check Pages

Use a browser and DevTools or curl to:

  • Visit the page

  • Check HTTP response code (should be 404 or 410 if page doesn’t exist)

  • Evaluate the content – is there real content, or just a shell page?

✅ Step 3: Use PageSpeed Insights or Inspect URL Tool

  • Paste affected URLs into URL Inspection in GSC.

  • See how Googlebot renders the page.

  • It might be missing content due to lazy loading, broken JavaScript, etc.

✅ Step 4: Check Server & CMS Behavior

  • For invalid pages, make sure the server returns:

    HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found

  • In Apache or Nginx, configure proper ErrorDocument handling.

  • In CMSs (WordPress, Shopify, etc.), make sure “Page Not Found” templates return a 404.

✅ Step 5: Audit Internal Links & Sitemap

  • Crawl your site with tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb.

  • Look for:

    • Broken or invalid internal links

    • Links pointing to recently removed or mistyped URLs

  • Remove or correct them.

🛠 How to Fix the Issues

CauseFix
Thin/empty pageAdd useful content or noindex/404 the page
Broken internal linksFix or remove internal links to bad URLs
Misconfigured error pagesReturn proper 404/410 HTTP status for non-existent content
Faulty CMS routingAdjust routing rules or templates to return proper status
Search/filter pages indexedUse robots.txt or noindex to block indexing of such pages

📌 After Fixing

  • Use the “Validate Fix” button in GSC.

  • Monitor for further spikes in the Coverage report.

Let me know if you’d like to analyze a real spike — I can help walk you through the diagnosis if you share affected URLs or more context.

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