Google has recently released a document explaining how the different http status codes impact a website’s appearance in search results.
If you’re unsure how a particular status code affects SEO performance, think of this guide by totalsurf as an http status code cheat sheet! Much of it may be familiar to you – for example, you may understand 404 error codes. But if they’re frequently popping up across your site, you may want to read on!
For site owners and developers, it can’t hurt to stay clued into what all http status codes mean and how you may be able to get around them.
An http status code is a server response to a browser’s request.
When you’re visiting a website, the browser sends a request to the site’s server, and the server then responds to the browser’s request with a three-digit code: the http status code
If there is an issue with the page, there will be one of multiple status codes which will indicate the particular problem.
As an example, if a browser requests content that is no longer hosted on the server, then a 404 error (not found) code will be generated. This is the code that most people will have come across at some point.
The first number of the status code indicates the category of error, whatever that may be and the end digits identify what response the server is sending. Rather than list each http status code one by one, the key ones are listed below.
1xx status codes mean that the server has received the request and is continuing the process. 1xx codes are temporary, and issued while the request processing continues. These include 100 (continue), 101 (switching protocols), 102 (processing) and 103 (early hints).
2xx status codes mean that the request was completed and the server gave an expected response. 2xx codes indicate that Google is considering the content for indexing.
A notable exception is a 204 code, which means that the page was successfully accessed but no content was found. If a page is serving a 204 status code, Google Search Console may well show this as a soft 404.
Still Struggling to Understand Your Search Console Data? Get in touch with us today.
There are several different types of redirects, all indicated by a 3xx status code.
Some of them – such as 308 (permanent redirect) and 301 (moved permanently) redirects – send stronger signals than others like 302s (found), 307s (temporary redirects) and 303s (see other). The latter of these codes mean that Googlebot follows the redirect, with the indexing pipeline using the redirect as a weak signal that the URL should be the canonical one.
A 304 status code (not modified) signals to Google that the content is the same as the last time it was crawled. This has no effect on its indexing, but it may cause the signals for the URL to be recalculated.
If the redirect doesn’t work, Googlebot will try up to 10 more times before stopping. These are commonly known as redirect hops. If, after 10 hops, the content isn’t received, Google Search Console will show a redirect error message in the site’s Index Coverage report. The amount of hops that Googlebot follows depends on the user agent; for example, the amount may differ between Googlebot Smartphone and Googlebot Image.
Pages that return 4xx status codes are not considered for indexing by Google. The simple reason is that there is an error with that page in some way, not from the server, but from the client. These range from 400 (bad request) to 403 (forbidden) and many more.
All 4xx codes, except 429s, are treated the same. Googlebot signals to the indexing pipeline that the content doesn’t exist, or is blocked from viewing in some way.
If the content was previously indexed, the URL will eventually be removed from Google’s search index. Newly encountered 404 pages (not found) aren’t processed, and the crawling frequency decreases.
429 status codes (too many attempts to process the request) mean that Googlebot couldn’t access a particular URL because of a server overload, but these URLs will be preserved in Google’s index.
Any 5xx and 429 server errors prompt Google to temporarily slow down with crawling. This slowdown in crawl rate is proportional to the number of individual URLs returning a server error. Whether this is 500 (internal server error), 502 (bad gateway) or 503 (service unavailable).
504 is a common status code on an overloaded server, and can highlight that your site has some technical issues which are simply overloading the server. The gateway (whether this is the server or a CDN) has timed out when trying to respond.
Any URLs that were previously indexed now issuing a server error will eventually be dropped if the 5xx code continues to be shown.
Network and DNS errors have negative effects on a URL’s presence in search engines. Network timeouts, connection resets and DNS errors are treated similarly to http server error codes – in other words, crawling will slow down. This is because network errors are signs that a server may not be able to handle the serving load.
Any previously indexed URLs which aren’t reachable anymore will eventually be removed from Google’s index.
For us as an SEO agency, we regularly monitor our clients’ websites and ensure that any unexpected errors or status codes that could affect their visibility on Google are quickly dealt with.
We regularly make use of tools such as Screaming Frog and Semrush that detail all of the URLs within a particular domain and what status code each of them has. This doesn’t involve manually scouring a site for every single page and reporting them; that would frankly take far too many hours, of which we all have very little!
We conduct an audit and return each URL’s http status in a matter of moments, using leading tools, that allow us to spot specific URLs returning 4xx or 5xx status codes and act accordingly to ensure a client’s SEO is unaffected. If necessary, we also have the ability to install plugins that will instantly notify us once a URL returns a particular code.
If you think that these status codes don’t make a massive difference to your site, you’d be mistaken.
Instead of trawling through your site’s URLs to find all the pages returning specific status codes, why not take advantage of a free (yes, FREE) technical audit from totalsurf?
Most SEO agencies charge for these audits, but we offer this as a completely no-obligation chat. This audit will allow us to show you, in fairly fine detail (but not overly technical), how your site is performing. It’ll essentially give you an overview of how many technical errors there are, which could be preventing your site from ranking as high as possible. If they’re affecting your SEO, we can let you know what’s causing that to happen, and come up with solutions on how we may be able to quickly and proactively help you.
It’s very simple. Just fill in the form and we will be in touch with your reports. We will also ask you to book a 30 min call with us so we can run through the report and explain what the issues are with your site, what your goals are and how we can help you.
