---
title: "How to return a real 404 with a recoverable body on Wix"
slug: fix-soft-404-wix
published: 2026-10-15T13:17:24.550487+00:00
updated: 2026-10-15T13:17:24.550487+00:00
author: "AIScan Content Team"
author_url: https://aiscan.site/about
category: "AI Readiness"
tags: check:E1, platform:wix, Wix, 404, soft 404, AI readiness
description: "Wix returns a real 404 but the default page is an empty script shell with no links. Add a 404 page in the Editor, avoid homepage redirects, and verify E1."
url: https://aiscan.site/blog/fix-soft-404-wix
---

Wix gets the status code right and leaves the page empty. Request a URL that does not exist on a Wix site and you get a genuine `404`, but the body is a script-built shell with no text and no links in the HTML. A browser fills it in. A crawler or agent that does not run scripts finds nothing to follow. This guide shows what nine live Wix sites return, how to add a 404 page with real links in the Editor, and the redirect habit that quietly turns good 404s into soft ones. Checked on 15 October 2026.

## Quick summary

| Situation | What you get | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Default Wix 404 | `404`, about 2.2 KB, 0 links, `noindex` | Add a custom 404 page |
| Custom 404 page | You control text and links (premium plan) | Link to pages people want |
| Old URL redirected to the homepage | A `200` that is not the page asked for | Redirect to a matching page, or let it 404 |
| Slug changed on a Blog post | No automatic redirect | Add a 301 by hand |

**Fastest route:** run `npx aiscan-cli yoursite.com` and read **E1, Correct 404 handling** (Discoverability). The by-hand check is in Step 4.

## What the default Wix 404 actually is

I requested a made-up path on nine Wix sites: five on `wixsite.com` addresses and four on custom domains. All nine answered `404 text/html`. The response was between 2,204 and 2,505 bytes, carried `<meta name="robots" content="noindex">`, and had the title "404 Error: Page Not Found". Inside the body there is one `<div id="root"></div>` and a script that draws the message. There were zero `<a>` tags in any of them.

So the status is correct, and [RFC 9110 defines 404 as exactly this signal](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110.html#name-404-not-found). AIScan scored one of those sites (a Wix manufacturer's site) as a pass on E1, with the evidence line `HTTP 404, 2206 bytes`. What it cannot give a script-less reader is a way out. E1 also looks at the body: [AIScan's E1 description](https://aiscan.site/docs/checks/discoverability) says full credit needs a body that names the site and links somewhere useful.

None of the nine sites had a custom 404 page, so I could not measure one. Step 1 builds it, and Step 4 tells you what to look for.

## Step 1: Add a 404 page with links

Per [Wix's own help article](https://support.wix.com/en/article/wix-editor-customizing-your-404-error-page), a custom 404 page needs a premium plan. In the Editor:

1. Click **Pages & Menu** on the left.
2. Click **Add Menu Item** at the bottom of the panel.
3. Click **New Page**, then **(404) Error Page**.
4. Hover a template, click **Add Page**.
5. Edit the text, add your site menu, and add links to the sections visitors look for.
6. Click **Publish**.

Wix notes that you can change the page title in **Page Settings**, but the page URL always contains `error404`. Write the sentence in your own words and name the site: "This page is not on example.com. Try the pricing page, the blog or the contact page." Use text links, not only buttons or an image.

## Step 2: Do not redirect dead URLs to the homepage

The Wix **URL Redirect Manager** creates 301 redirects, and it is easy to point every retired URL at `/`. [Google's status code guidance](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/troubleshooting/http-status-codes) says a `200` whose content suggests an error or an empty page shows up in Search Console as a soft 404. A homepage served for a retired product URL is that pattern from the reader's side. Redirect an old URL to its closest replacement, and when there is none, leave it to 404.

Limits from [Wix's redirect article](https://support.wix.com/en/article/setting-up-a-301-redirect-for-a-page-on-your-site):

- 301 redirects only work with a **custom domain**. A free `wixsite.com` address cannot have them.
- You cannot create a redirect whose source is your homepage.
- A site can hold at most 5,000 redirects.
- Wix creates a redirect automatically when you change an Editor page slug. **Blog pages are the exception**: change a blog slug and you must add the 301 yourself, or the old URL 404s.

## Step 3: Check the layers in front of Wix

If you put a CDN or proxy in front of a custom domain, it can replace a `404` with a friendly `200`. Test the live domain, not only the Wix preview.

## Step 4: Verify the fix

**With AIScan (default):** run `npx aiscan-cli yoursite.com`, open **Discoverability** and find **E1, Correct 404 handling**. It reads pass when the status is `404`. Watch the body evidence too.

**By hand with curl:**

```bash
curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code} %{content_type}\n' https://yoursite.com/this-page-does-not-exist-9f3a
curl -s https://yoursite.com/this-page-does-not-exist-9f3a | grep -o '<a ' | wc -l
```

Expected: `404 text/html`, then a link count above zero. On the default Wix page I measured `0`. If the first line prints `200` after you add your page, the status is wrong, and Wix support is the next stop. I found no live Wix site with a custom page to measure, so this command is the test, not my word.

## Edge cases

- **A redirect conflict** can arise when a page and a redirect claim the same URL. Wix's redirect article has a section on resolving it.
- **Deleted pages** return the 404 page, which is correct. Do not redirect them out of habit.

## Next step

Run the scan, check E1 on your own domain, and read the rest of the series in [AIScan's guides](https://aiscan.site/guides). Related reading: [why soft 404s mislead agents](https://aiscan.site/blog/soft-404-agent-discovery-problem), the [Webflow version of this fix](https://aiscan.site/blog/fix-soft-404-webflow), [AI readiness setup on Wix](https://aiscan.site/blog/ai-readiness-setup-wix), and the [Discoverability checks](https://aiscan.site/docs/checks/discoverability).