Response to a made-up URL, by platform
| Platform | Sites | % 200 (any) | % page served at fake URL | % sent to homepage | % sent elsewhere | % 404 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | 3,780 | 0.5% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.2% | 99.5% |
| WordPress | 8,460 | 5.0% | 0.6% | 3.6% | 0.9% | 92.4% |
| Other platforms | 12,234 | 12.9% | 6.7% | 2.4% | 3.8% | 85.2% |
| All sites | 24,948 | 8.3% | 3.6% | 2.5% | 2.2% | 89.5% |
Source: PageSpeed Matters, Oct 2026. 474 sites with an unknown platform count only in the All sites row.
Summary
When someone asks a server for a page that does not exist, the correct answer is a 404. It tells browsers, crawlers and link checkers that the address is dead, so Google can drop it and stop spending crawl time on it. A soft 404 is the wrong answer: the server says 200 OK and hands back something that is not the page that was asked for.
We tested this on sites that already rank. We requested one made-up URL on 24,948 sites that appear in Google's top 20 for US searches. Most got it right. But 8.3% answered the fake address with a 200, and the platform a site runs on predicts that far better than how well it ranks.
What we measured
We started from the domains ranking in Google's top 20 for 10,019 US searches. For each site we requested one random, made-up path that cannot exist, and recorded the status code and the final URL after any redirects.
A response counts as a soft 404 when the fake URL ends on a 200. We split those into three cases: the server served a page at the fake address, it redirected to the homepage (including locale roots such as /en/), or it redirected somewhere else. Each site was tested once, in October 2026.
Most sites answer a fake URL correctly
Of the 24,948 ranking sites we probed, 89.5% returned a proper 404 for the made-up URL. That is the good news: nine in ten sites tell crawlers the truth about missing pages.
The other 8.3% returned a 200. That group breaks down into three habits. 3.6% of sites served a page at the fake address, usually a template or a catch-all page. 2.5% sent the fake URL to the homepage. 2.2% redirected it somewhere else, such as a search page or a category. The small remainder answered with other status codes.
Each of these looks harmless to a visitor, but to a crawler the fake address now looks like a real, working page. Google's own guidance is to return a 404 or 410 for pages that no longer exist, and Search Console flags pages it judges to be soft 404s.
8.3%
Share of sites ranking in Google's top 20 that answer a made-up URL with a 200 instead of a 404.
Platform makes the biggest difference
The platform a site runs on is the clearest predictor in the data. Shopify stores almost never return a 200 for a fake URL: just 0.5% of 3,780 did, and 99.5% returned a 404. The platform handles missing URLs the same way for every store, so store owners rarely get the chance to break it.
WordPress sits in the middle. 5.0% of 8,460 WordPress sites returned a 200, and most of those were homepage redirects: 3.6% sent the fake URL to the homepage, while only 0.6% served a page at it. That pattern usually comes from redirect plugins or theme settings that send every missing URL home.
Sites on every other platform are where soft 404s concentrate. 12.9% of 12,234 such sites returned a 200, and 6.7% served a page at the fake address itself. Serving a page at any path is typical of setups where the server returns the same app shell for every URL and leaves it to JavaScript to decide what to show.
Shopping sites are the cleanest group
Grouping sites by the keywords they rank for tells a similar story. Of 9,930 sites whose rankings are mostly shopping keywords, 7.0% return a 200 for a fake URL. That rises to 9.2% of 7,524 services and finance sites and 9.5% of 2,777 B2B software and marketing sites.
Part of that gap is likely platform mix: shopping sites include many Shopify stores, which handle missing pages correctly by default, while services, finance and software sites lean more on other platforms.
Sites that rank widely return more soft 404s
Sites that rank for more of our study keywords are more likely to answer fake URLs with a 200. 11.8% of the 711 sites ranking for 10 or more study keywords do, against 8.4% of 5,708 sites ranking for 2 to 9 and 8.0% of 18,216 sites ranking for just one. Sites that rank widely are likely larger, and larger sites tend to carry more complex routing and older redirect rules, which make it easier for a missing URL to land somewhere it should not.
Ranking position, on the other hand, barely matters. 8.5% of 6,194 sites with a best rank of #1 to #3 return a 200, against 7.7% of 9,384 at #4 to #10 and 8.6% of 9,057 at #11 to #20. A soft 404 setup does not stop a site from ranking well, but it does leave crawlers with addresses that look live when they are not.
How to check your own site
The test takes a minute. Request a URL on your site that cannot exist, such as /this-page-does-not-exist, and check the status code in your browser's network panel or with a header checker. You want a 404 or 410, with no redirect in between.
If you get a 200, look at what is producing it. On WordPress the usual cause is a plugin or theme rule that redirects all missing URLs to the homepage. On JavaScript builds, the server needs to know which routes are real so it can return a 404 for the rest. In both cases a helpful 404 page, with search and links to your main sections, gives visitors the same way out without misleading crawlers. Then check Search Console's page indexing report for URLs marked as soft 404.
Sources
- Google Search Central, HTTP status codes and network errors (soft 404 errors): https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/http-network-errors
- PageSpeed Matters analysis of Google top 20 results for 10,019 US searches, October 2026
Embed this research
Paste this on your site to embed the chart. It links back to the source automatically.
<iframe id="psm-soft-404-statistics" src="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/embed/data-studies/soft-404-statistics" width="100%" height="600" style="width:100%;border:1px solid #E2E3E1;border-radius:12px" loading="lazy" title="Soft 404s on Ranking Sites: 8.3% Serve Pages for Fake URLs - PageSpeed Matters"></iframe>
<script>window.addEventListener("message",function(e){if(e&&e.data&&e.data.psmEmbed==="soft-404-statistics"&&e.data.height){var f=document.getElementById("psm-soft-404-statistics");if(f){f.style.height=e.data.height+"px";}}});</script>
<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/soft-404-statistics">Soft 404s on Ranking Sites: 8.3% Serve Pages for Fake URLs - PageSpeed Matters</a></p>
Frequently asked questions
What is a soft 404?
A soft 404 is when a page that does not exist returns a 200 OK status instead of a 404 or 410. The server might show a template, an empty page, or redirect to the homepage, but to a crawler the missing address looks like a working page.
How common are soft 404s?
We requested a made-up URL on 24,948 sites ranking in Google's top 20 for US searches. 89.5% returned a proper 404 and 8.3% returned a 200: 3.6% served a page at the fake address, 2.5% redirected to the homepage and 2.2% redirected elsewhere.
Which platforms have the most soft 404s?
Shopify stores almost never return a 200 for a fake URL (0.5% of 3,780). 5.0% of 8,460 WordPress sites do, mostly through homepage redirects, and 12.9% of 12,234 sites on other platforms do.
How do I check my site for soft 404s?
Request a URL that cannot exist on your site and check the status code in your browser's network panel or a header checker. It should return 404 or 410 with no redirect. Search Console's page indexing report also lists URLs Google has flagged as soft 404s.
Soft 404s are usually one redirect rule or one routing setting, and fixing them stops crawlers from treating dead addresses as live pages. Need help with this? See our technical SEO services.