HTTP Status Codes for SEO: An In-Depth Guide

Introduction

When Googlebot or a human visitor tries to access a page on your website, the server replies with a short “status update” — an HTTP status code.

These are three-digit numbers that quietly tell browsers and search engines whether your page loaded successfully, redirected somewhere else, or hit an error.

For regular users, these codes mostly go unnoticed.

But for SEO professionals, webmasters, and developers, they are critical signals that can boost or destroy your rankings.

• A correct 301 redirect can preserve your hard-earned link equity.
• A careless 302 redirect can stall your page’s authority transfer.
• A forgotten 404 can lead to lost traffic and wasted backlinks.
• Frequent 5xx server errors can make search engines lose trust in your site’s reliability.

In this guide, we’ll cover all major HTTP status codes from the harmless to the harmful and explain how each affects SEO. Also show you best practices to keep your website healthy in 2025 and beyond.

By the end, you’ll have:

• A complete list of important status codes.
• SEO impact breakdown for each code.
• Practical tips to fix and prevent issues.
• Recommended tools for monitoring your site’s health.

What Are HTTP Status Codes?

HTTP status codes are three-digit messages sent by your website’s server to a browser (like Chrome) or a crawler (like Googlebot) in response to a request for a web page.

Think of them as a conversation between the browser and your server:

Browser: “Hey server, can I get the page at /about-us?”
Server: “Sure! Here’s the content and everything’s fine (200).”

Or…
Server: “That page has moved permanently — check this new address (301).”
Or…
Server: “Oops, I can’t find that page (404).”

These codes help search engines understand:

• Whether a page is working or broken.
• If content has moved and where it moved to.
• Whether they should index a page or drop it from search results.

How Status Codes Work in the SEO Context

1. User/Crawler requests a URL:– This can be a user clicking a link or Googlebot crawling your sitemap.
2. Server processes the request:– The server checks if the page exists, is available, or needs redirection.
3. Server sends back an HTTP status code:– The code tells the browser/crawler what happened.
4. Action is taken:– The browser displays the page, redirects, or shows an error message.

Why They Matter for SEO

• Impact Crawl Efficiency: Too many redirects or errors waste Googlebot’s crawl budget.
• Affect Rankings: Search engines prioritize sites with reliable status codes.
• Control Link Equity: Proper redirects ensure backlinks continue to benefit your site.
• Improve User Experience: Visitors don’t stick around if they keep hitting broken pages.

📌 Example:
If you migrate your blog from /blog/old-post to /blog/new-post and use a 301 redirect, Google transfers the authority of the old URL to the new one.
But if you accidentally use a 302 redirect, Google may treat it as temporary and not transfer full ranking power.

Categories of HTTP Status Codes

HTTP status codes are grouped by their first digit. This first digit tells you the type of response your server is giving.

Here’s a breakdown:

1xx – Informational Responses

These indicate the server has received the request and is still processing it.

• Examples:
  • 100 Continue:– The server got the initial request headers and tells the client to keep sending the body.
  • 101 Switching Protocols: – The server agrees to switch to a different communication protocol.
• SEO Impact: Not relevant for rankings; mostly used in API communication or special server setups.

2xx – Success Codes

These mean the request was successful and the server is delivering the requested content.

• Examples:
  • 200 OK:– Standard response for a successful GET request; page is ready to view.
  • 204 No Content:– Request succeeded but there’s nothing to display (often used in background processes).
• SEO Impact:
  • ✅ Always aim for 200 OK on indexable pages.
  • ✅ Search engines can crawl, index, and rank these pages without issues.
    

3xx – Redirection Codes

These tell the browser or crawler that the page has moved and provide a new location.

• Examples:
  • 301 Moved Permanently:– The content has permanently moved to a new URL; passes most link equity.
  • 302 Found (Temporary):– Content is temporarily elsewhere; may not pass ranking signals fully.
  • 307 Temporary Redirect:– Like 302 but keeps the HTTP method unchanged.
  • 308 Permanent Redirect:– Like 301 but more strict in preserving request methods.
• SEO Impact:
  • ⚠ Use 301 for permanent URL changes to preserve SEO value.
  • ⚠ Avoid long redirect chains (too many hops can hurt crawl efficiency).

4xx – Client Errors

These mean the request is invalid or the page doesn’t exist.

• Examples:
  • 400 Bad Request:– The request can’t be processed due to invalid syntax.
  • 401 Unauthorized:– Login or credentials required.
  • 403 Forbidden:– Access to the resource is denied.
  • 404 Not Found:– Page is missing or the link is broken.
  • 410 Gone:– Page has been intentionally removed and won’t return.
• SEO Impact:
  • ❌ Too many 404s waste crawl budget and hurt UX.
  • ✅ Use 410 when removing pages permanently to speed up deindexing.

5xx – Server Errors

These mean the server failed to fulfill a valid request.

• Examples:
  • 500 Internal Server Error:– Generic server-side failure.
  • 502 Bad Gateway:– Server acting as a gateway received an invalid response from another server.
  • 503 Service Unavailable:– Server is overloaded or under maintenance.
  • 504 Gateway Timeout:– Another server took too long to respond.
• SEO Impact:
  • Critical to fix — frequent 5xx errors make Googlebot lose trust and may cause deindexing.

Detailed Breakdown of Key Status Codes

200 OK

The request has succeeded, and the server is returning the requested content.

• Example: A blog post loads normally after a GET request, showing its HTML, CSS, and images.
• SEO Impact:
  • ✅ Best status for indexable content.
  • ✅ Tells search engines that the page is live, accessible, and should be indexed.
• Best Practice: Always ensure your primary pages (homepage, landing pages, blogs) return 200 OK for both desktop and mobile crawls.]

301 Moved Permanently (The Permanent Move)

The resource has permanently moved to a new URL.

• Example: /services permanently redirects to /seo-services after a site restructure.
• SEO Impact:
  • ✅ Passes most link equity from the old page to the new page.
  • ✅ Helps preserve rankings during migrations.
• Best Practice:
  • Use when URLs change permanently.
  • Keep redirects short (avoid chains).
  • Update internal links to the new URL.

302 Found / Temporary Redirect (Just Visiting)

The resource is temporarily at another location.

• Example: /offer redirects to /offer-summer during a seasonal sale.
• SEO Impact:
  • Doesn’t always pass full link equity (Google may eventually treat it like 301 if it persists).
• Best Practice: Use for genuinely temporary changes and switch back to 200 OK or 301 when done.

404 Not Found (Oops, Gone Missing)

The requested page could not be found on the server.

• Example: /old-post is deleted, but no redirect is in place.
• SEO Impact:
  • ❌ Too many 404s hurt user experience and waste crawl budget.
• Best Practice:
  • Redirect valuable URLs to relevant pages.
  • Allow true 404s for junk or spam URLs.
  • Monitor via Google Search Console.

410 Gone (Gone for Good)

The page is permanently removed and will not return.

• Example: /black-friday-2022 intentionally deleted after the event.
• SEO Impact:
  • ✅ Signals search engines to remove the URL faster than a 404.
• Best Practice: Use for content that will never return and has no replacement.

500 Internal Server Error (Something Broke)

A generic error indicating the server couldn’t process the request due to an unexpected condition.

• Example: A faulty plugin causes your blog to crash.
• SEO Impact:
  • Major issue — if frequent, Google may deindex affected pages.
• Best Practice:
  • Check server logs for error details.
  • Fix server or code issues immediately.

503 Service Unavailable (Overloaded or Under Maintenance)

The server is temporarily unable to handle the request.

• Example: Site is down for maintenance or facing heavy traffic.
• SEO Impact:
  • Short downtime is okay, but prolonged outages harm rankings.
• Best Practice:
  • Use during planned maintenance.
  • Include a Retry-After header to tell crawlers when to come back.

Here’s the updated closing line for the section:

I hope you’ve understood everything clearly, and just to let you know – while there are many different status codes and errors but we’ve focused here on the ones that matter most from an SEO perspective.

Best Practices to Manage and Monitor Status Codes

Understanding status codes is one thing; actively managing them is another.

To keep your website healthy and your SEO strong, you should follow these best practices.

1. Regularly Monitor Your Site for Errors

You can’t fix what you don’t know about. Regularly checking your site for errors is a fundamental task.

You should use tools to crawl your site just like a search engine would, and you need to look for any 4xx or 5xx codes.

This helps you catch issues before they impact your users or search engine rankings.

2. Avoid Redirect Chains

A redirect chain is when a user is redirected multiple times (e.g., A > B > C). This is a bad practice for several reasons:

• It slows down page loading time for your users.
• It can dilute the SEO value of the link.
• It wastes search engine crawl budget.

Our Best Practice: We always redirect directly from the old URL to the final destination URL (A > C), skipping any intermediate redirects to ensure optimal performance and SEO value.

3. Correctly Handle Broken Links

A broken link (one that returns a 404) is a frustrating experience for users and a lost opportunity for your site.

You have two main strategies for dealing with them:

• For Internal Links: If you find an internal link pointing to a page that no longer exists, you must update the link to point to the correct, live page.
• For External Links: If you find external websites linking to your old, non-existent pages, you should set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the most relevant new page on your site. This is how you reclaim valuable link equity.

4. Be Intentional with Your Redirects

Every redirect you implement has an SEO consequence.

You must make sure you’re using the right tool for the job.

• Permanent Changes: For any permanent URL changes, you should always use a 301 redirect to preserve your SEO value.
• Temporary Issues: For short-term fixes or maintenance, you should use a 503 code to tell search engines to come back later.
• Intentionally Removed Content: If you permanently remove content and don’t want to redirect it, you should use a 410 Gone code to signal to search engines that it’s no longer available.

Conclusion

Status codes may look small, but in SEO, they can make or break your site. They guide search engines, help users find the right content, and flag issues before they hurt rankings

Keep them in check, fix problems fast, and use the right code at the right time. You know even the smallest code can have a big SEO impact.