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GeckoCheck Support

Unknown paths return a real 404

What the check finds

The origin answers HTTP 200 for paths that do not exist, instead of 404. Crawlers cannot tell a real page from a missing one, so crawl budget is spent on duplicates of the same shell and Search Console reports those URLs as soft 404 errors.

Why it matters for AI answers

When missing pages return 200, crawlers cannot tell real pages from empty ones. Crawl effort goes to junk URLs, and an AI tool may read an empty shell as real content.

How to fix it

  1. Return HTTP 404 or 410 for paths that do not exist.
  2. In single-page apps, have the server send 404 for unknown routes, not the app shell with 200.
  3. Keep a helpful custom 404 page, but serve it with the 404 status code.
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