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Rule · HTTP and hosting

Missing URLs return 404 or 410

SEO-HTTP-03C2 Recommended· w4

Class
C2 Recommended
Weight
4
Severity on fail
major
Applies to
Google

Scope and evidence

Evaluated on preferred origin. The book marks this requirement DOCUMENTED RECOMMENDATION, SEARCH-ENGINE-SPECIFIC.

{same_as_home_clause} = " with the same content as the home page". {via_clause} as in SEO-HTTP-01. This rule also covers the book's SEO-JS-02.

Fail conditions

Each condition has a stable code and a reason template. The evaluator fills the placeholders from observed values only; no sentence in a report is generated.

  • probe_200

    A request for a page that does not exist ({probe_url}) returned 200{same_as_home_clause}{via_clause}. Google recommends a meaningful status code, like a 404 for a page that could not be found, and reports pages that return 200 with error-like or empty content as soft 404 errors in Search Console.

  • probe_other

    A request for a page that does not exist ({probe_url}) returned {outcome}{via_clause}. Google recommends a meaningful status code, like a 404 for a page that could not be found.

The documented fix

Return a real 404 (or 410 for deliberately removed content) with a helpful error template. In single-page apps, route unknown paths to a URL that returns 404, or add noindex to the error view.

Sources, quoted

These are the passages the rule rests on, stored once in the knowledge base and emitted exactly as written. A citation marked for specific conditions appears only on findings with those codes.