How To Fix Soft 404 Errors WordPress

Soft 404 errors on WordPress can impact your website ranking on search engine. A standard 404 Not Found error is shown sometime on website,because, either the page has been removed or GoogleBot has been said not to index.

A Soft 404 error is different from it as you still get 404 error on website where google bot instead showing error, gets a 200 OK message, confirming about the page and start loading.

Because of this reason, Google bot is redirected to crawl and index the page.

A soft error can happen because what’s on the page is the 404 error message that isn’t related to the HTTP response from the server. Because of this, it is possible for a page to show content stating it is a 404 page, while not sending the same message to the website crawlers.

How to Find Soft 404 Errors on Website ?

Signup for Google Search console and connect your website. Once the website is fully configured , check the reports and if available, you can see a list of your 404 errors.

How to Fix Soft 404 Errors on WordPress

#1 If the page has been deleted, set up a correct 404 or 410 error

If you’re using WordPress, the great thing is that there is a 404 error page is already setup. You can also install WordPress plugins to redirect 404 error pages.

Find some best plugins to redirect 404 error page.

#2 Use a 301 redirect

If your page was moved but not deleted from website, then setting up a 301 redirect to the new page will solve soft 404 error with your website.

#3 Fill empty tags

Empty tags are particular tags you have created with your website but haven’t used it with any post or pages. These tags, when crawled by Googlebots will show a soft 404 error and will affect SEO ranking.

Try adding or using these tags with other posts and content.

#4 Add content

In the report, provided by search console, if you manage to get the page link and find out the source of the error, the best and simple way to get rid of this error is by adding content.