Optimizing SEO Through Understanding HTTP Status Codes

In the world of digital marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vital for improving a website's visibility and ranking on search engines. It is crucial to understand HTTP status codes for better website visibility and attract our customers to generate traffics as well as leads. 

What Are HTTP Status Codes?

Client devices send requests to servers for accessing webpages or applications. In response, the server returns a specific set of three-digit codes, known as HTTP Status Codes, which indicate the result or status of the request.

 They fall into five main categories based on the first digit of the code:

1xx (Informational): These codes indicates that the server has received the request from client and continuing process

2xx (Successful): These codes indicates that the request was successfully processed (e.g., 200 OK).

3xx (Redirection): These codes indicates that further action is needed to be added from client side.

4xx (Client Errors): These codes indicates that there was an error in the request made by the client. It is also called Client Errors.

5xx (Server Errors): These codes suggest that the server failed to fulfill a valid request (e.g., 500 Internal Server Error).

Importance of HTTP Status Codes for SEO

HTTP status codes play a crucial role in the work of SEOs and search engine crawlers. You’ll frequently come across them, making it essential to understand the meaning of different status codes. For example, when you delete a page from your site, it’s important to know the difference between serving a 301 and a 410 status code. Each serves a distinct purpose, leading to different outcomes for how search engines handle the page. These are most important HTTP Status code for SEO.

2xx: Successful

• 200 OK - The request is OK.
• 201 Created - The request is complete, and a new resource is created.
• 202 Accepted - The request is accepted for processing, but the processing is not complete.

3xx: Redirection

• 301 Moved Permanently - The requested page has moved to a new url .
• 302 Found - The requested page has moved temporarily to a new url .
• 303 See Other - The requested page can be found under a different url .
• 307 Temporary Redirect - The requested page has moved temporarily to a new url.

4xx: Client Error

• 400 Bad Request - The server did not understand the request.
• 401Unauthorized -The requested page needs a username and a password.
• 403 Forbidden

1.  Access is forbidden to the requested page.
2. indicates that the server understands the request but refuses to authorize it.
3. 403 Forbidden error message means that the server is unable to authorize a particular request made by a user.

• 404 Not Found - The server can not find the requested page.

5xx: Server Error

• 504 Gateway Timeout - The gateway has timed out.
• 503 Service Unavailable - The request was not completed. The server is temporarily overloading or down.

To check the status codes generated by your site, log into your Google Search Console. In the Indexing section, you'll see any crawl errors that Googlebot has identified over a specific period. It's important to resolve these crawl errors to ensure your site is indexed properly.