No Results Found Response Can Lead To Soft 404s In Google Search Console

Jul 21, 2021 - 7:41 am 1 by

Google Magnifying 404

Did you know 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? We know Google recently changed how it determines some soft 404 pages, but this tidbit is not new to that change.

In both a Google Webmaster Help thread and a Twitter thread, there are examples of Google spiking in showing soft 404s for pages with messages like - no results found or similar language used on that page. Then when you remove that message, the soft 404 response goes away.

John Mueller said on Twitter that those responses "could certainly throw us off." John added "It's less obvious here, but a similar case we've seen is when a page is served with a noindex, and client-side JavaScript removes that."

Here is a tweet showing the soft 404 spike:

John then being asked about if this can be the case:

And then making a change on the site to reduce the soft 404s and improve the indexing:

This is a similar story in the Google Webmaster Help.

In any event, just keep this in mind and it obviously makes sense. But spotting this can be hard for a webmaster.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help and Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Web Analytics

Google Analytics Real Time Reporting Broken Again

Jul 17, 2025 - 10:40 am
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 17, 2025

Jul 17, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google

Google AI Mode Gets Gemini 2.5 Pro & Deep Search For A Fee

Jul 17, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google

Google Discover Officially Gets AI-Generated Summaries

Jul 17, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

How The Google Ask For Me Feature Works & New AI Local Calling

Jul 17, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google

Google Tests Much Larger Favicons In Search

Jul 17, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: New Google Ads Three Strikes And You're Out Policy