Seo
Page has successful HTTP status code
When you try to access content on a server using the
HTTP protocol,
the web server returns a three-digit HTTP status code for each resource request they
receive.
Status codes above 400 indicate an error with the requested resource. If a search engine encounters a status code error when crawling a web page, it will not be indexed.
Status code categories
Below is a list of status code categories by their first digit:
- 2XX: OK: everything functioned
- 3XX: Redirected: you're opening a page, but the server will send oyu to another location
- 4XX: Client error: you tried opening this page, but for some reason, you won't be able to access the page. Either because it doesn't exist, you tried too many times, or you're not allowed.
- 5XX: Server error: you tried opening this page, but the server could not perform the action and server produces an error.
Why it is important
Google has a whole section on status codes and how they handle all these codes. Google and other search engines will generally not index pages with a status code above 400.
The whole purpose of SEO is to drive traffic to your website, but if it is full of error codes, it will not be accessible to the crawler or your customers.
Additionally, Google will drop any pages it had previously indexed if it returns a 404 or a 5xx error message.
Designing error messages and pages that clarify what has gone wrong can significantly improve your website's user experience.
Believing that nothing will ever go wrong is not a good strategy. Make sure to design your error messages and match them with the right status codes.
| Code | Meaning | What will Google do? |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | OK | Index the page |
| 301 | Moved permanently |
Follow the redirect, and use the redirect target as a canonical
(strong signal) |
| 302 | Moved temporarily |
Follow the redirect, but don’t directly consider the redirect target as a canonical
(weak signal) |
| 404 | Not found | Don’t index, and remove if it was indexed already |
| 429 | Server is overloaded | Crawl your website more slowly |
| 4XX | Forbidden, gone, unauthorized |
Don’t index, and remove if it was indexed already
(the only exception is 429) |
| 5XX | Server error | Crawl your website more slowly |
How the audit works
The WASP crawler will visit every URL on your website regardless of its status code and document every request.
Sitefig uses status codes not listed in the official specifications to indicate different types of errors, such as DNS errors.
A status code of -1 or 1000 indicates a crawling error caused by DNS issues.
Fixing the problem
Sitefig will crawl your website based on the scheduling frequency of your subscription and report any issues with potential status codes.
Once you have identified the status codes you'd like to fix, you can download the list of URLs in a CSV file and share them with a developer or a marketing professional.