Bug in How Google Detects Soft 404s May Be Causing Traffic Losses

If you are seeing an uptick in soft 404s and a drop in rankings on desktops, then you might not be alone.

Due to a recent change on Google’s side (likey from last week) that is related to how it detects soft 404 pages has reportedly been recently updated and is causing innocent sites that are not supposed to be affected to nonetheless lose search traffic from users on a desktop. Google is aware of the issue.

Update 15/04/2021:

Google's Soft 404 detecting issue continues. @JohnMu and @Olaf_Kopp were able to discuss in the SEO office hours on Friday (https://t.co/KUhyQt9hYy). @searchliaison this is increasingly impacting our site, and it would be helpful if you can comment on a timeline for resolution pic.twitter.com/iwKxCQoCFL

— Jordan Silton (@jsilton) April 12, 2021