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HTTP Status Codes: What Every Code Means and How to Protect Your Rankings

A complete reference guide to every HTTP status code your clients' websites return to Google — and exactly what each one means for their search rankings.

Covering all major 2XX, 3XX, 4XX, and 5XX codes, this cheat sheet breaks down the SEO impact in plain language, tells you when a code is actively harming visibility, and gives you the precise fix to apply. From the silent ranking killer of a misconfigured 301 redirect to the critical deindexation risk of a persistent 500 error — every code is documented with a clear action step.

Used by agency partners across the US — built by Pam Harper, 20-year technical SEO veteran.

Protect your search rankings — identify which codes are actively harming SEO and get clear, actionable fixes before Google drops pages from its index

Master redirects the right way — avoid costly mistakes like using 302s where 301s are needed, or building redirect chains that silently bleed SEO value

Instant at-a-glance reference — identify SEO risk levels and required actions for 12+ status codes in seconds during any Screaming Frog crawl or site audit

Confidently manage site migrations — apply pro-level tactics like 410s for deleted pages and Retry-After headers during downtime to keep Google's trust intact

Know which codes demand immediate action — 403, 500, 507 versus which are safe to monitor, so you prioritize fixes with the biggest impact

HTTP Status Code

Cheat Sheet

CodeMeaningSEO RiskAction

200 OK — Page found & delivered None Monitor

301 Moved Permanently Medium Verify chain

302 Found (Temporary Redirect) High Check intent

404 Not Found High Fix or 301

500 Internal Server Error Critical Fix NOW

+ 12 more codes in the full cheat sheet…

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What's Inside

Every Code. Every SEO Impact. Every Fix.

A preview of the complete quick-reference table included in the cheat sheet.

2XX

Success Codes — Server delivered the response

CodeMeaningSEO RiskAction

200 OK — Page found and delivered None Your target state. No action needed — monitor to ensure it stays consistent.

204 No Content Medium Should not be returned for pages Google is expected to index. Investigate immediately if found in crawl data.

3XX

Redirect Codes — Resource moved, browser/bot must follow

301 Moved Permanently Medium Passes ~99% of link equity. Acceptable for permanent moves. Audit for chains — each hop loses a fraction of equity.

302 Found (Temporary Redirect) High Does not pass equity reliably. Only use if the move is genuinely temporary. Misuse is one of the most common technical SEO mistakes.

304 Not Modified Low Caching signal. Not a problem — means Google isn't re-downloading unchanged pages. Efficient use of crawl budget.

307 Temporary Redirect (HTTP/1.1) High Behaves like 302 for SEO purposes. Equity not reliably transferred. Verify this is intentional.

308 Permanent Redirect (HTTP/1.1) Medium Permanent equivalent of 307. Passes equity similarly to 301. Acceptable for permanent moves.

4XX

Client Error Codes — Request problem on the browser/bot side

400 Bad Request High Malformed request. If Googlebot receives this, the page won't be indexed. Fix the URL or server configuration causing it.

401 Unauthorized Critical Googlebot can't authenticate. Page will not be indexed. Ensure public-facing pages never return 401.

403 Forbidden Critical Server actively refusing access. Google will deindex pages returning this. Immediate investigation required on any indexable page.

404 Not Found High Page doesn't exist. If previously indexed or linked to, 301 redirect to the most relevant page. Don't leave 404s accumulating on crawled URLs.

410 Gone Medium Deliberately removed. Signals to Google the page is intentionally deleted — deindexes faster than 404. Use this for content you permanently removed.

429 Too Many Requests High Rate limiting. If Googlebot receives this, crawl frequency drops. Review server rate limits and whitelist Googlebot user-agent.

5XX

Server Error Codes — Problem on the server side

500 Internal Server Error Critical Generic server failure. Fix immediately. Persistent 500 errors cause Google to stop crawling affected sections and eventually deindex pages.

502 Bad Gateway Critical Upstream server issue. Often hosting or load balancer related. Extended periods cause crawl drops. Investigate infrastructure immediately.

503 Service Unavailable High Temporary. If for planned maintenance, add a Retry-After header so Google knows when to return. Without it, Google treats this as a potential 500.

504 Gateway Timeout Critical Server didn't respond in time. Crawl frequency drops rapidly. Often a database or hosting capacity issue — resolve at the infrastructure level.

507 Insufficient Storage Critical Server out of disk space. Pages cannot be served. Immediate action required — hosting emergency. Check disk usage immediately.

Risk Legend: Critical — Immediate action required High — Fix this sprint Medium — Fix this month Low — Monitor None — No action needed

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