How to Fix Soft 404 Errors in Google Search Console for Blogger and WordPress
Are you getting Soft 404 errors in Google Search Console for your Blogger or WordPress website? These errors can harm your website's SEO and affect your rankings. But don't worry! In this article, we will explain what Soft 404 errors are, why they occur, and how to fix them on your website.
Table of Contents
Introduction
What are Soft 404 Errors?
Why do Soft 404 Errors Occur?
How to Find Soft 404 Errors in Google Search Console?
How to Fix Soft 404 Errors in Blogger?
Check the Links on Your Website
Redirect Broken Links
Customize the 404 Page
How to Fix Soft 404 Errors in WordPress?
Check Your Permalinks
Use a Plugin to Redirect Broken Links
Customize the 404 Page
How to Test if Soft 404 Errors are Fixed?
Conclusion
FAQs
Introduction
Soft 404 errors occur when a page on your website returns a 200 OK response code instead of a 404 Not Found response code, even though the page doesn't exist. These errors can confuse search engines and harm your website's SEO. In this article, we will guide you through the process of fixing Soft 404 errors on your Blogger or WordPress website.
What are Soft 404 Errors?
Soft 404 errors occur when a page on your website is not found but instead of returning a 404 Not Found response code, it returns a 200 OK response code. This can happen when the server returns a default page (such as the homepage) instead of a custom 404 error page. Search engines consider Soft 404 errors as low-quality pages and may penalize your website for them.
Why do Soft 404 Errors Occur?
Soft 404 errors can occur due to several reasons, such as:
Broken links on your website
Incorrect URL structure
Missing pages or posts
Server configuration issues
How to Find Soft 404 Errors in Google Search Console?
To find Soft 404 errors in Google Search Console, follow these steps:
Log in to your Google Search Console account.
Select your website property from the dashboard.
Go to the Coverage report under the Index tab.
Look for Soft 404 errors under the Error tab.
Click on each error to see the affected pages and the reason for the error.
How to Fix Soft 404 Errors in Blogger?
If you are using Blogger, you can fix Soft 404 errors by following these steps:
Check the Links on Your Website
The first step is to check the links on your website to make sure they are not broken. You can use a broken link checker tool or manually check each link on your website. If you find any broken links, either remove them or redirect them to a relevant page.
Redirect Broken Links
If you have broken links on your website, you can redirect them to a relevant page using a 301 redirect. To do this, follow these steps:
Log in to your Blogger account and go to the Theme section.
Click on the Edit HTML button.
Search for the "head" tag and paste the following code before it.