HTTP status code or call them HTTP response status codes, they are returned to the browser to inform it about a web page or resource it requested from the server. When a browser or a search engine makes a request to the server, it responds to the request with a status code. Now the code it returns depends on the status of the resource or request.
If the request is served successfully by the server, the response status code will return 200. Similarly, there are other response codes as well. All these codes play a great role in both the website design & development and SEO of your website.
Knowing these status codes is very important for the website developers and designers. Skills to read these code will help them identify an error on the page and do the needful to fix it. Moreover, even the SEO professionals should also be familiar with the response code, as some of these are really crucial from the SEO point of view.
So, it’s undoubtedly an important thing to know about your website. So, let just understand them and improve the knowledge base. At least, next time when you see any such code, you can easily identify that error and ask the website development team to look into it.
HTTP Response Status Code Groups
The HTTP status codes are formally divided into 5 groups
100s: Progress- Request received and in process
200s: Successful- Request received and processed successfully.
300s: Redirects- Request received but a redirection required to serve the resource.
400s: Browser errors- Also referred as client errors. The request made by the client, but the page is not valid.
500s: Server errors- Server failed to complete the request
HTTP Response Status Codes- SEO perspective
While there are many more codes in these groups, there are abundant that are important from the SEO point of view. Let’s understand these codes in detail.
200 OK response code
This HTTP response code means the request has been served successfully by the server. Generally, it means no error in the request or from the server side.
301 Moved Permanently
This HTTP response status code is often used by the webmasters from the SEO perspective. It means that the requested resource is not available on current URL. The user must use one of the returned URLs to get the desired resource. In Simple terms, the page your are visiting have been permanently shifted to a new URL, Please use this new URL to visit the particular page from now onwards.
PS: When you move to a new URL and apply 302 redirects on it, It carries forward the SEO of your old URL to the new URL. That is, it does not kill your SEO. 301 redirect is often used in the creation of SEO-friendly URLs.
302 Found/ Moved Temporarily
This response status code is returned in a similar condition as of 301 but on a temporary basis. It means the page you are requesting for has been moved to a different URL, but you need not use the new URL for future requests as this is just a temporary redirection.
PS: 302 redirection is not a recommended approach. Unlike 301 redirects, it does not carry forward your SEO to the new URL. Pages redirected with 302 codes are not ranked well on the search engines.
404 File Not Found
This is an error code which means that the requested resource was not found on the server. This can happen anytime when the server fails to find a requested page on the site.
A site with too many 404 errors is always seen by the search engines with that doubtful look. This affects the SEO as well. To handle this, webmasters often create a separate page with text written 404 error on it and redirect all the 404 pages to this particular page. In this way, the actual response code received will be now 200 OK but it will show as 404 on the page.
There are some nice solutions given here on this stack overflow discussion thread for Redirecting 404 error with .htaccess via 301 for SEO.
410 Gone
This HTTP response status code means that the requested resource in no longer there on the URL you are looking at and there is no redirection to any new URL to find the resource.
This code is a bit similar to 404. When server knows that the resource is no more available and it's not going to be available in the future as well on this URL, then it gives the 410 Gone response code.
However, when the server does not know if the missing resource will ever be available on this requested URL, then it gives the 404 response.
500 Internal Server Error
When something goes wrong on the server. It's a server side error that has to be fixed on the server. This could be temporary or even permanent till it is fixed.
502 Bad Gateway
When a server communicates with another server, and if the other server fails to respond successfully, then the first server sends this 502 error code to the client/browser.
503 Service Unavailable
When this response code shows on your browser, it means that the server is currently unable to serve the request due to a temporary failure. Generally due to overloading. It generally means that server has gone unresponsive for a temporary period of time.
For example, when the server has to be put down for a short time for maintenance purposes, it's a 503 condition.
Over to you
So, these are some HTTP response status codes which you generally see while browsing the internet or diagnosing your website. Now that you have an understanding of what these error codes mean, you should run the HTTP Response Status Codes Check for your website and find out if there are any error codes. If there is any, ask your web developer to look into it. You should also ask your SEO service provider to keep a track of such error codes, and also check if the redirection has been used correctly.
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