Difference between 404 error and soft 404 error

The difference between a 404 error and a soft 404 error is whether the HTTP status code returns "404" .If the HTTP status code returns 404, it is correctly handled as a 404 error. However, in the case of a "soft 404 error" where "Page Not Found" is displayed even though "200" is returned indicating that the communication was successful, you need to take action.



This is because Google crawls pages that are not needed, resulting in phone number list delays in crawling existing pages and wasting limited crawler resources.For more information on how to check for soft 404 errors and what to do about them, please read [What to see on Search Console] What are soft 404 errors? How to check, causes, and remedies .How to check 404 errors on your own siteThere are many ways to check for 404 errors on your website. The easiest way to check is to use Google Chrome's developer tools .To open Google Chrome's developer tools, click the three-dot icon (⋮) in the top right corner of Google Chrome, then click [More tools] > [Developer tools].How to open Google Chrome developer toolsWhen you open the relevant page and open the Network tab of the developer tools, you can check the HTTP status code from Status as shown below.Developer tools screen display with HTTP status code confirmedAlso,You can also check it from.





Google Analytics 4 (GA4) . In Google Analytics 4 , you can view pages using the flow of "Reports → Engagement → Pages and Screens" and search for "404" to see which pages have caused a 404 error.HTTP status code display screen in Google Analytics 4Please note that the operation method for Google Analytics 4 is different from conventional Google Analytics (Universal Analytics). We have prepared materials that will help you understand Google Analytics 4, so please download them for free and use them.