An HTTP Status Code is the server’s response to a browser’s request. When you visit any website, your browser sends a request to the server, and the server responds with a three-digit code that describes the result.
If we inspect the response header of a page, it looks something like this. The first line shows the status code – the server’s response to the request:
| Name | Value |
|---|---|
| HTTP/1.1 200 OK | |
| Content-Type: | text/html; charset=UTF-8 |
| Link: | <https://savvy.co.il/>; rel=shortlink |
| X-LiteSpeed-Cache-Control: | public,max-age=604800 |
| X-Litespeed-Cache: | hit |
| Date: | Thu, 12 Feb 2026 09:15:42 GMT |
| Server: | LiteSpeed |
| Cache-Control: | public, max-age=604800 |
| Vary: | User-Agent |
In Chrome DevTools, the Network tab shows this information and indicates the status code for each requested resource:
HTTP Status Code
Understanding HTTP Status Codes helps you identify errors on your site and address them quickly. You can instruct the server to return a specific status code to help search engines and visitors access, navigate, and understand your site correctly.
For example, a 301 status tells search engines and browsers that a page has permanently moved to a new address. A 503 status tells them the page is temporarily unavailable for maintenance.
HTTP Status Codes Overview
The first digit of each three-digit code falls into one of five categories (1 through 5). You will often see these written as 1xx, 2xx, etc. to represent any code within that range. Each category covers a different type of server response:
- 1xx – Informational: The server received the request and is continuing to process it.
- 2xx – Success: The request was successfully received, understood, and accepted.
- 3xx – Redirection: Further action is needed to complete the request, usually a redirect to another URL.
- 4xx – Client Error: The request contains an error on the client side, such as a page that does not exist or insufficient permissions.
- 5xx – Server Error: The server failed to fulfill a valid request due to an internal issue.
Chrome Dev Tools Network Status Code
Important Status Codes for SEO
As SEO professionals and web developers, it is important to understand the HTTP Status Codes that have the most impact on search rankings and user experience. A site showing many 5xx errors, for example, immediately signals a server-level problem. A spike in 4xx errors may indicate broken URLs or deleted pages.
Once you identify the cause, you can decide whether to create a custom 404 page, set up a permanent 301 redirect, or take other action.
You can monitor status codes for your site in Google Search Console under the Pages report. It shows which URLs return errors (4xx, 5xx) and which are successfully indexed (200). Checking this regularly helps you catch issues before they impact rankings.
Here are the HTTP Status Codes that every web developer and SEO professional should know:
HTTP 200 – OK
This is the ideal status code. It means the server successfully processed the request and returned the requested page or resource.
HTTP 301 – Moved Permanently
Use a 301 redirect when a URL has permanently moved to a new address. Visitors and bots landing on the old URL are automatically sent to the new one. Critically, a 301 transfers the link equity (ranking power) from the old URL to the new one.
HTTP 302 – Found (Temporary Redirect)
A 302 indicates that the requested resource is temporarily under a different URL. Since the move is temporary, search engines continue to index the original URL.
In terms of user experience, a 302 redirect behaves like a 301 – visitors are redirected to the new page. However, link equity does not transfer. Do not use 302 for permanent URL changes.
HTTP 307 and 308 – Strict Redirects
307 (Temporary Redirect) and 308 (Permanent Redirect) are stricter versions of 302 and 301 respectively. The key difference is that 307 and 308 preserve the HTTP method. If the original request was a POST, the redirect will also be a POST.
For most websites and SEO purposes, 301 and 302 are sufficient. You will encounter 307 and 308 primarily in API development or applications that submit form data via POST.
HTTP 304 – Not Modified
A 304 status means the requested resource has not changed since the last time the browser fetched it. The browser can use its cached version instead of downloading the resource again. This saves bandwidth and improves loading speed.
HTTP 404 – Not Found
Status Code 404 indicates that the requested page or resource was not found on the server. It does not specify whether the content is missing permanently or temporarily.
A common mistake is redirecting all 404 pages to the homepage using a 301 redirect. In most cases, this is a bad idea because users will not understand why they landed on the homepage instead of the content they expected.
If the missing page had significant traffic or inbound links, redirect it to the most relevant existing page on your site. Otherwise, let it return a 404 and make sure you have a well-designed custom 404 page that guides visitors back to useful content.
Not all 404 errors need to be fixed. Pages that were intentionally removed, had no traffic, and have no inbound links can safely remain as 404s. Focus your redirect efforts on pages that actually carried value.
For e-commerce sites, products that are no longer available often return a 404. There are specific strategies for handling unavailable products in terms of SEO.
HTTP 410 – Gone
A 410 is a stronger signal than 404. It tells search engines that the page has been permanently removed and will not return. There is no new address to redirect to. Google will drop 410 pages from its index faster than 404 pages.
If you have internal links pointing to a 410 page, remove or update them. Linking to a resource that is confirmed gone provides no value.
HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error
A 500 error is a generic server-side failure. It means something went wrong on the server, but the server could not be more specific about what. Both visitors and search engine bots will be unable to access the page, and if the error persists, search engines will eventually drop the affected pages from the index.
HTTP 503 – Service Unavailable
A 503 tells clients that the server is temporarily unavailable. This is commonly used during planned maintenance or when the server is overloaded.
The key advantage of 503 over other 5xx codes is that it explicitly signals a temporary condition. Search engines will return to crawl the page later instead of treating it as a permanent failure.
If you are making significant changes to your site’s structure and want search engines to pause crawling temporarily, returning a 503 with a Retry-After header is the correct approach. This tells crawlers exactly when to come back.
Common causes for 503 errors:
- The server is under maintenance.
- The server is overloaded with traffic.
- The server is under a DDoS attack.
- The site has exceeded its allowed bandwidth.
- A misconfigured plugin or script is consuming all server resources.
FAQs
Common questions about HTTP Status Codes:
curl -I https://example.com to see the response headers, or check Google Search Console's Pages report for crawl errors across your site.Retry-After header to tell search engines when to return. Do not use 503 as a long-term solution - if a page is permanently removed, use 410 instead.Summary
HTTP Status Codes are the language servers use to communicate the result of a request. As a web developer or SEO professional, understanding codes like 200, 301, 404, and 503 helps you diagnose issues quickly, preserve link equity through proper redirects, and ensure search engines can crawl and index your site correctly.
Monitor your status codes regularly through Google Search Console and browser DevTools to catch problems early.
