Google: Soft 404s Waste Crawl Budget Even with 200 OK
▼ Summary
– Google’s Gary Illyes clarified that soft 404s consume crawl budget, unlike standard 4XX errors, impacting crawl efficiency.
– Soft 404s return a 200 OK status but display content like “page not found,” misleading search engines about the page’s validity.
– Google identifies soft 404s through content analysis, flagging pages with missing or low-value content despite the HTTP status code.
– Google Search Console’s Index Coverage report helps identify soft 404s, which often include out-of-stock pages or empty search results.
– To prevent crawl waste, use proper HTTP status codes (404/410), redirects, or structured data for out-of-stock notices instead of soft 404s.
Understanding how soft 404 errors affect crawl budget is crucial for optimizing website performance. Google’s Gary Illyes recently shed light on this often-overlooked issue during Search Central Live Asia Pacific 2025, revealing that soft 404s, despite returning a 200 OK status, still waste valuable crawl resources.
Unlike traditional 404 pages, which clearly indicate missing content, soft 404s display messages like “page not found” or “product unavailable” while technically registering as successful server responses. Google’s algorithms analyze page content to detect these inconsistencies, flagging them as low-value even when the HTTP status code suggests otherwise. The result? Crawlers spend time on pages that offer no real benefit, slowing down the discovery of meaningful content, especially problematic for large-scale websites.
Spotting Soft 404s Before They Hurt Performance
Because these pages return valid HTTP responses, they often bypass standard technical audits, quietly draining crawl budget without raising red flags.
Fixing the Issue: Best Practices
While soft 404s might seem minor, their impact on crawl efficiency is anything but. Misaligned server responses and page content create unnecessary bottlenecks, delaying the indexing of high-quality pages. For websites aiming to maximize visibility, addressing soft 404s should be a top priority in technical SEO audits.
(Source: Search Engine Journal)
