Most developers know that 200 means OK and 404 means not found. The SEO implications of the codes in between — and of returning the wrong code — are less obvious. A page that serves a 302 when it should serve a 301 leaks link equity. A deleted product returning 200 with an empty template is a soft 404 that confuses Googlebot and dilutes crawl budget. A server error returning 503 on a busy day is fine; one that lasts a week starts triggering deindexing.
Key Takeaways
- 200 OK — the only code that fully signals a healthy, indexable page to Google
- 301 (permanent redirect) passes nearly full link equity; 302 (temporary) passes less and should only be used when a URL will return
- 404 is for temporarily missing pages; 410 signals permanent removal — Google deindexes 410s faster
- Soft 404s — pages returning 200 but showing thin or empty content — are an invisible SEO drain
- 503 tells Google to retry later and preserves index status; a sustained 503 triggers deindexing
Why HTTP Status Codes Matter for SEO
Google's crawler reads status codes before doing anything else with a URL. The code determines:
- Whether to index the page — only 200 responses with indexable content get fully indexed
- Whether to pass link equity — 301s pass it; 302s pass less; 404s and 5xx codes pass none
- Whether to crawl the redirected URL — redirects tell Googlebot to follow the chain to the destination
- How quickly to deindex — 404 deindexes after repeated crawls; 410 deindexes faster; 503 is a temporary hold
- How much crawl budget to spend — error responses still consume crawl budget without producing indexable content
The Status Codes That Affect Rankings
| Code | Name | SEO impact | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200 | OK | Positive — fully indexable page | Use for all live, content-bearing pages |
| 301 | Moved Permanently | Passes ~99% of link equity to destination | Use when a URL has permanently moved and won't return |
| 302 | Found (Temporary Redirect) | Passes less equity than 301; source URL stays indexed | Use only for genuinely temporary redirects (A/B tests, maintenance) |
| 404 | Not Found | Loses equity; Googlebot deindexes after repeated 404s | Return 404 for genuinely missing pages; fix broken internal links pointing here |
| 410 | Gone | Signals permanent removal — Google deindexes faster than 404 | Use when content is intentionally deleted and will never return |
| 503 | Service Unavailable | Tells Google to retry; preserves index status short-term | Use during maintenance windows; set Retry-After header; fix quickly |
| 429 | Too Many Requests | Tells Googlebot it's crawling too fast; may reduce crawl rate | Set Retry-After; tune crawl rate in GSC if Googlebot is overloading the server |
301 vs 302 Redirects — Which One to Use
The practical difference: use 301 for permanent moves, 302 for temporary ones. In most real-world cases — page migrations, URL restructures, domain changes — you want 301.
Why it matters: a 302 leaves the original URL indexed in Google's systems, because Google assumes it will eventually return. A 301 signals "this URL is gone, consolidate everything to the destination." Link equity from inbound links pointing to the old URL flows to the destination URL with a 301. With a 302, Google may choose to keep both in its index, splitting authority.
The one legitimate use for 302: genuinely temporary redirects with a defined end date. A/B testing, maintenance pages, geo-based redirects that serve different content to different audiences. When the test ends, the URL returns — so 302 is correct. Using 302 for a permanent move is one of the most common SEO mistakes, often done unintentionally because it's the default in some frameworks.
Use the Redirect Tracer to check exactly what type of redirect any URL is returning — and whether it's creating a chain of redirects that should be collapsed to a single hop.
404 vs 410 — When to Use Each
404 Not Found — use when a page is missing but you're not certain it won't return. A deleted blog post you might restore, a product temporarily out of catalogue, a URL that was mistyped. Googlebot crawls 404 pages repeatedly over weeks before deindexing them — giving you time to fix the issue if it was unintentional.
410 Gone — use when content is permanently removed and will never come back. A discontinued product, an event that has passed, a migrated service. Google treats 410 as a strong signal of permanent removal and deindexes much faster — typically within days of the first crawl, rather than weeks.
How to Find Status Code Errors on Your Site
Google Search Console — Coverage Report
Settings → Coverage shows pages Google has tried to crawl, broken down by indexed, excluded, and error categories. The "Not found (404)" and "Server error (5xx)" sections show exactly which URLs are returning errors as Google sees them.
ByteWaveNetwork Link Checker
Crawls your entire site following all internal links and reports the HTTP status of every URL it finds — including 404s, 301/302 chains, 403s, and 5xx errors. Broken internal links are the fastest source of wasted crawl budget on most sites. Run a full site crawl to get the complete list.
ByteWaveNetwork Redirect Tracer
Enter any URL and see the full redirect chain hop-by-hop — status code, Location header, response time, and HTTP version at each hop. Useful for diagnosing multi-hop chains and confirming that 301s are correctly passing equity in a single hop rather than via a chain that loses juice at each step. Use the Redirect Tracer for specific URL investigations.
Soft 404s — The Status Code Problem You Can't See
A soft 404 is a page that returns HTTP 200 but shows no meaningful content — an empty product page after the SKU was deleted, a "no results" search page, a "member not found" profile page. From a technical perspective, it's a valid response. From Google's perspective, it's a page that looks like a 404 but is pretending to be content.
<meta name="robots" content="noindex"> if the page needs to exist but shouldn't be indexed.
Server Error Codes (5xx) and SEO
5xx errors — 500 (Internal Server Error), 502 (Bad Gateway), 503 (Service Unavailable), 504 (Gateway Timeout) — all tell Googlebot that the server couldn't handle the request. A few 5xx errors on isolated pages during a deployment are normal and don't cause lasting damage. The problems happen when:
- 5xx persists across many pages — Googlebot may reduce its crawl rate, causing delays in indexing new content
- 5xx persists for an extended period (days+) — Google starts deindexing affected URLs to avoid showing broken results
- 5xx affects your homepage — can trigger a sitewide crawl pause
503 with a Retry-After header is the correct response for planned maintenance — it tells Googlebot to come back after a specific time and preserves index status. Without Retry-After, Googlebot has no indication when to retry and may increase retry frequency, compounding the load issue.
Scan Your Site for Status Code Errors
Free, no signup. The Link Checker crawls every internal URL on your site and reports the status code for each one — 404s, redirect chains, 403s, and 5xx errors all surfaced in a single scan.
Try the Link Checker Free →Affiliate disclosure: Some links on this page may be affiliate links. We only mention tools we've personally used and have an honest opinion about. Affiliate revenue helps keep ByteWaveNetwork's tools free and maintained. We are not paid by any of the tools compared in this article for favorable coverage.