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Several months ago Google told us that returning a "results not found" type of page can result in Google Search considering that page a soft 404 and thus removing it from the search results. The same is true for "Sorry we don't deliver to this location" or other negative and error looking pages.
Here is a new case of where Google has dropped out pages from its index that had the text "Sorry we don't deliver to this location" on those pages. A tweet from Nikhil Raj. R showed how the site's soft 404 page count spiked, while the traffic and impressions in Google search dropped significantly.
All Category pages had "Sorry we don't deliver to this location". This was shown to customers entering a PIN code which we don't deliver to, but was part of the page by default. Removed this text from the page and that fixed the soft 404! #seo @JohnMu @methode @rustybrick https://t.co/j3UEsXXb3U
— Nikhil Raj. R (@nikhilrajr) December 30, 2021
Here are closer looks at those screenshots via Twitter:
Soft 404s increasing:
Traffic decreasing:
John Mueller of Google confirmed it on Twitter saying "Yeah, if you make your pages look like they might be error pages, we might treat them as such. It's similar to having a noindex on them, and using JavaScript to selectively remove it. Good job finding this!"
Yeah, if you make your pages look like they might be error pages, we might treat them as such. It's similar to having a noindex on them, and using JavaScript to selectively remove it. Good job finding this!
— 🐄 John 🐄 (@JohnMu) December 30, 2021
So this is just another reminder to be careful with these types of pages, you don't necessarily want them all to not be in the Google index.
Thanks for the mention and sharing the information Barry :) For those who need more details - The "sorry" text was hidden in css, made visible when needed. Now, sorry text is put in a function which gets triggered based on user interaction with address selector.
— Nikhil Raj. R (@nikhilrajr) January 4, 2022
Forum discussion at Twitter.
