This mismatch typically happens when a site redirects a deleted or broken URL to a generic page (often the homepage) that returns a 200 status instead of properly returning a 404 or 410, or when a page technically loads but shows essentially no real content (an empty search results page, a product marked unavailable with no substitute content). Google's Search Console flags soft 404s as their own distinct category, separate from genuine 404s, because they represent a more confusing case: the server claims success, but the content doesn't match what a legitimate, valuable page should look like, which can lead Google to either exclude the page from the index or, worse, waste crawl resources repeatedly re-evaluating a page that will never actually qualify.
Example
A deleted product page redirects to the site's homepage rather than returning a proper 404, causing Search Console to flag hundreds of soft 404s — fixed by either restoring a proper 404/410 response or redirecting to a genuinely relevant replacement page.
Related terms
Related terms
Related Reading
404 Error
A 404 error is the standard HTTP status code returned when a requested page doesn't exist on the server — the classic 'page not found' response.
A/B Testing (SEO)
A/B testing in SEO is the practice of showing two versions of a page element — usually a title tag, meta description, or on-page element — to see which one earns a better click-through rate or ranking outcome.
AI Citation
An AI citation happens when an AI assistant like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, or Gemini references or links to a specific page as the source for part of its answer.
