Question
What's the difference between a 'soft 404' and a 'hard 404'?
Asked by: USER4621
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60 Answers
Answer (60)
A 'hard 404' is a true 404 error, where the server explicitly returns a 404 status code. A 'soft 404' occurs when the server returns a 200 OK status code (meaning the page loaded successfully) but displays a 'Page Not Found' message. Soft 404s can confuse search engines and should be fixed by returning a proper 404 status code.