Comments on: What are Soft 404 Errors and How to Fix Them (Easy Guide)

By: Alex Chris

Alex Chris — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 05:23:08 +0000

In reply to Nikki.

Hi Nikki

Yes, if you don’t want the page to be indexed. Otherwise, add a 301 redirect to redirect the page to a valid URL.

I hope this helps.
Alex

By: Nikki

Nikki — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 18:48:23 +0000

Thanks for this article. The soft 404 I’m getting is for an author/wp-engine page. So, it’s not a page with an editable header. Should this “page”/URL just be added to the robot.txt file to correct the soft 404 error?

By: Nitin Dabas

Nitin Dabas — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 03:41:27 +0000

Hi Alex,
Actually, Google Search Console is showing soft 404 error for one of my categories that I use on my site.
But, it is actually a live URL, don’t know why Google is taking it as soft 404 error.
I have just clicked on Validated Fix, is it okay or should I do something else?
-Nitin Dabas

By: James Smith

James Smith — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 03:24:39 +0000

The information you provide about soft 404 Errors are definitely well-detailed. The guide you give on how to fix them is truly easy. Thanks for providing a description of a soft 404 error. You clearly point at the difference between 404 Not Found and soft 404 errors. You present well the relation between 404 Errors and SEO. Thanks for giving us the tips on how to fix soft 404 errors.

By: Alex Chris

Alex Chris — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 06:44:17 +0000

In reply to Victoria.

Hi Victoria

You need to add a 301 Redirection to point to a new URL. Something like this:

Redirect 301 /URL-OF-DELETED-ARTICLE /URL-OF-NEW-ARTICLE

You can add this in your .htaccess file or in Yoast SEO advanced settings.

Hope this helps
Alex