What Are HTTP status codes are one of the essential knowledge you need to know when diagnosing technical SEO. The reason is that the status code lets you know whether your page is being accessed normally or not.
In this episode , we will look at the meaning of HTTP status codes , codes to pay attention to from an SEO point of view , and finally, how to check HTTP status codes.
Before explaining HTTP status codes, let’s learn about HTTP.
Click on a topic of interest below to jump directly to that article.
1. What is HTTP?
2. What are HTTP Status Codes?
3. HTTP status code classification
4. Why HTTP Status Codes Matter in SEO
5. 6 Common HTTP Status Codes in SEO
– 200 (OK)
– 301 (Moved Permanently)
– 302 (Found / Moved Temporarily)
– 404 (Not Found)
– 500 (Server Error)
– 503 (Service Unavailable)
6. How to check HTTP status code
7. Closing
What is HTTP?
HTTP is an abbreviation for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) , and is a request/response protocol between a client and a server . For example, when a client (PC and browser) requests information from a server via HTTP, the server responds to the request by passing that information to the client. You will then be able to view this information on your monitor.
What Are HTTP Status Codes?
If so, some of you may have noticed what the HTTP status codes mean roughly. The server’s response code for the HTTP request sent by the client. Depending on the status code, the success/failure of the request is separated by three digits (e.g. 404).
HTTP status code classification
Why HTTP Status Codes Matter in SEO
Working in SEO without knowledge of HTTP status codes is like managing a dining restaurant in Paris, France without knowing French. It’s like a Hospitals Email List lot happens in a restaurant but you don’t know what happened, why it happened or how to improve it.
6 Common HTTP Status Codes in SEO
200 OK
301 (Moved Permanently)
302 (Found / Moved Temporarily)
404 (Not Found)
500 (ServerError)503 (Service Unavailable)
Meaning: Your most desired status code. When the server sends an HTTP status code of 200 in response, it informs the client that the request was successfully received and responds with the requested content. That means everything worked fine.
In terms of SEO, no extra work is required
Meaning: A ‘ 301 redirect’ means that the URL has moved permanently to another location. That request and all subsequent requests should be redirected to a different URL.
Due to their persistent nature, all signals from the redirected request URL are forwarded to the destination URL. Browsers also cache ‘301 redirects’ to store additional requests in the future, which also speeds up page display and improves the user experience.
SEO-wise meaning: When a search engine sees a page with a 301, it passes the old page’s page rank and score for links to the new page. If the location change is temporary, you should not use a 301 code. This is because if you regress to the previous URL location, you will no longer be scored for page rank or links.
– 302 (Found / Moved Temporarily)
Meaning: A ‘ 302 redirect’ means that the URL has temporarily moved to another location.
Keep in mind that search engines may treat 302 redirects as 301 redirects after a lot of time.
What it means: The 404 status code is the most common status code encountered by most users browsing the web, as it appears when clicking CMO Email List on a broken link. A “404 error” indicates that the requested resource could not be found. This means that the client can communicate with the server, but the server side cannot find what the client requested.
404 errors can occur even for content that exists due to problems caused by developers or server maintenance. It’s not a good idea to have a URL return a 404 error unless you’ve removed the content.
