Open the Pages report in Google Search Console for almost any WordPress site that’s been around a few years and you’ll find a list of URLs Google has chosen not to index. Some are excluded for perfectly good reasons, such as redirects or deliberate noindex tags. But two groups deserve attention: pages flagged as a soft 404, and pages marked “Crawled, currently not indexed”. Both often point to the same underlying issue. Google looked at the page and decided it wasn’t worth showing in search results.
These pages rarely cause dramatic problems on their own. But on sites with many of them, they waste crawling, dilute quality signals and hide the fact that pages you care about may have the same weaknesses. This article explains what a soft 404 is, why WordPress sites produce them, how thin pages differ and how to fix each case properly.
What a soft 404 is
A normal 404 is when a server says “this page doesn’t exist” by returning a 404 status code. A soft 404 is when the server says “this page is fine” with a 200 status code, but the page looks like an error or an empty page to Google.
Examples:
- A page that says “No results found” or “Product not available” but returns 200
- An empty category or tag archive with no posts
- A search results page with nothing in it
- A page with almost no content beyond the header and footer
- A redirect to the homepage from a page that no longer exists, which Google often treats as a soft 404
Google flags these because they mislead: the server claims there’s a real page, but there’s nothing useful on it. Google doesn’t index them, and it may crawl them less over time.
What thin content means
Thin pages are a related but broader issue. They’re real pages with some content, but not enough unique value to justify indexing. Google might crawl them and decide not to index them, which shows as “Crawled, currently not indexed”, or index them but rarely show them.
Typical thin pages on WordPress sites:
- Tag archives with one or two posts
- Author archives on single-author sites, duplicating the blog
- Date archives
- Attachment pages showing just one image
- Short posts with a few sentences, often old news or announcements
- Location or service pages with templated text and little real information
- Product pages with only a title, price and a sentence from the manufacturer
Finding them on your site
Search Console
In the Pages report, look at:
- Soft 404: Google lists URLs it considers soft 404s.
- Crawled, currently not indexed: often thin or low-value pages.
- Discovered, currently not indexed: sometimes thin pages Google didn’t bother crawling, sometimes a crawl budget issue.
Click through to see example URLs. Patterns usually emerge quickly: lots of tag pages, product pages for discontinued items, empty archives.
A crawl
Crawl your site with a tool like Screaming Frog. Sort pages by word count and look at the lowest. Check for pages returning 200 with phrases like “nothing found”, “no products” or “page not found” in the content. Many crawlers let you search page text for such phrases.
WordPress itself
Look at taxonomy term counts. In Posts, Tags, sort by count. Tags with one post produce thin archive pages. The same applies to categories and WooCommerce product tags.
Common WordPress causes and fixes
Empty or near-empty archives
Category and tag archives with zero or very few posts are frequent soft 404 and thin page sources. Fixes:
- Delete unused tags and merge similar ones. Many sites have hundreds of tags used once.
- Merge small categories into larger ones and redirect the old archive URLs.
- Set tag archives to noindex in your SEO plugin if tags are only used for internal organisation.
- For important categories that are temporarily empty, add useful introductory content explaining the topic and linking to related content.
Out-of-stock and discontinued products
Product pages for items that are temporarily out of stock are fine to keep. They should clearly say the item is out of stock, offer alternatives and ideally an email notification when it returns. Google generally keeps such pages indexed if they’re still useful.
For permanently discontinued products:
- If there’s a direct replacement, 301 redirect to it.
- If there’s a close category, consider redirecting to the category, accepting that Google may treat a redirect to a broad page as a soft 404.
- If the page has backlinks or traffic, keep it live with information about the product and links to alternatives.
- If it has no value, return a 404 or 410 status.
Avoid redirecting every removed product to the homepage. Google usually treats that as a soft 404 and users find it confusing.
Internal search result pages
WordPress search URLs like /?s=keyword can be indexed if they’re linked from anywhere. Empty search results are classic soft 404s. SEO plugins usually add noindex to search results, and disallowing search URLs in robots.txt stops crawling.
“Page not found” pages returning 200
Some themes and plugins display custom error pages without sending a proper 404 status. Check by visiting a URL that doesn’t exist and inspecting the response code:
It should return 404. If it returns 200, fix the theme or the plugin responsible.
Similarly, custom post types or filtered views that show “No items” for invalid parameters should return 404 rather than an empty page.
Attachment pages
Attachment pages show a single image or file on its own page. New WordPress installations since 6.4 disable them by default, but older sites may still have thousands. Most SEO plugins can redirect attachment URLs to the file itself or the parent post. Turn that on.
Thin posts and pages
Old short posts, such as event announcements or brief updates, often add little value years later. For each one, choose:
- Improve it, if the topic is still relevant and the page could be genuinely useful
- Merge it into a more comprehensive page and redirect
- Remove it, returning 404 or 410, if it has no traffic, links or value
- Keep with noindex if it’s useful for visitors but not for search, though often merging or removing is cleaner
Templated pages with little unique content
Service area pages, programmatically generated pages and lightly edited manufacturer descriptions are common thin page sources. They need genuinely unique, useful content to be worth indexing. If you can’t provide that, consolidate them into fewer, stronger pages.
Choosing the right status code
Getting status codes right is the core of fixing soft 404s:
- 200: the page exists and has real content
- 301: the content has moved permanently to a relevant equivalent
- 404: the page doesn’t exist
- 410: the page existed and has been permanently removed
Google treats 404 and 410 similarly in practice, though 410 can lead to slightly faster removal. Either is better than a 200 page that says “not found”.
After fixing
Once you’ve made changes:
- Use Search Console’s “Validate fix” on the soft 404 issue to ask Google to recheck.
- Update internal links that pointed to removed pages.
- Remove deleted pages from XML sitemaps. Most SEO plugins do this automatically.
- Monitor the Pages report over the following weeks.
Expect the counts to change gradually. Google needs to recrawl the affected URLs, which can take weeks for low-priority pages.
Why it’s worth the effort
Fixing soft 404 and thin page issues doesn’t usually produce an overnight traffic jump. Its value is cumulative: a site where nearly every indexed page is useful sends clearer quality signals, uses crawl resources efficiently and gives visitors fewer dead ends. For sites with thousands of weak pages, the cleanup can noticeably improve how well the remaining content performs.
A cleanup plan for older sites
On a site with years of content, tackle the work in order of impact. First fix technical soft 404s, such as error pages returning 200, empty search pages and attachment pages, because they’re quick wins. Then deal with taxonomy archives by merging or noindexing thin tags and categories. Then review products and posts, starting with those that have neither traffic nor backlinks, and decide whether to improve, merge or remove each one. Keep a spreadsheet of decisions and redirects, so the work can be reviewed and reversed if needed.
Frequently asked questions
Are soft 404s a penalty?
No. They’re Google’s way of saying a page isn’t worth indexing. They aren’t a penalty, but large numbers of them can indicate quality problems worth addressing.
Should I noindex all tag pages?
Not necessarily. Tag pages with many relevant posts and a clear topic can be valuable. Noindex or remove the thin ones, and keep the useful ones indexable.
Why is Google calling my real page a soft 404?
Usually because it looks empty or similar to an error page, for example a product with “unavailable” prominently displayed and little other content. Adding useful content often resolves it.
Is it bad to have 404 errors?
No. 404s for pages that genuinely don’t exist are normal and expected. Only worry about 404s on pages that should exist or that have valuable backlinks.
