When a web page can’t be found, most websites display a 404 error message. This is known as a “hard 404” and it lets users know that the page they were looking for doesn’t exist. But sometimes, instead of displaying an error message, websites will show something else: a soft 404.

Soft 404s are pages that appear to be normal web pages but don't actually provide any useful information or contain the content that was expected by the user. They usually include some text explaining why the page can’t be found, such as “this page no longer exists” or “the link you followed may have expired.” Soft 404s can also include links to other pages on the website or search boxes so users can try to find what they were looking for elsewhere on the site.

Unfortunately, soft 404s don't help users resolve their problems and can even hurt your website's performance in search results if Google identifies them as such. Fortunately, there are ways to fix soft 404s and ensure your website provides visitors with helpful information when they encounter errors.

"Soft 404s can be a tricky issue to identify and fix, but with the right approach, you can get your website back on track and ensure your visitors have a positive experience."

The first step is to identify which pages on your site are returning soft 404s rather than hard ones. You can do this by using tools like Google Search Console or crawling your site with specialized software like Screaming Frog SEO Spider. Once you've identified these pages, you should update them with more helpful messages so visitors know exactly why they're seeing an error instead of getting confused about why nothing appears when they click on a link or type in an URL address bar directly into their browser window..

You also need to make sure that all broken links lead back to valid web pages rather than just redirecting users back home (which is another common form of soft 404). If possible, create custom landing pages for each broken link so people still get value from clicking through; if not, at least make sure each dead-end leads back somewhere useful within your own website ecosystem rather than going nowhere at all!

Finally, it's important to regularly check for new broken links across your entire website—and fix them quickly—so visitors don't run into unexpected errors while browsing around online. Regularly monitoring both external and internal links will help keep things running smoothly and reduce confusion among users who stumble upon these issues while trying out different parts of your digital property!

In short: Soft 404s are problematic because they don't provide visitors with useful information when there's an error in accessing content from a webpage; however, there are steps businesses can take to identify and fix these issues before too much damage has been done by providing more informative messages and redirecting people somewhere relevant in order maximize satisfaction levels among customers who come across these types of errors during their journeys online!