HTTP Status codesKJO0I0II0I00
HTTP Status codesKJO0I0II0I00
HTTP status codes are three-digit responses from the server to the browser-side
request. Everyone has probably gotten the classic 404 page-not-found error. That is
an HTTP client error status code and there are a lot more of them.
These status codes (also called response status codes) serve as a means of
communication between the server and the internet browser and there are multiple
code classes based on the type of information they are communicating. The
differences in classes are indicated through the first digit of the error code, for
example: just like a 404, any other 4xx will mean that in some way the page or
website could not be reached, while a 2xx means that your request was successfully
completed.
Table of content
• What are HTTP status codes?
• How are HTTP status codes categorized?
• Complete list of HTTP Status Codes
• What does this HTTP status code mean?
• HTTP Status codes to know for SEO
• How to check the HTTP status code
• How to fix 404 errors
• How to fix 503 errors
How are HTTP status codes categorized?
HTTP status codes are split into 5 different categories. Each category will give you
hints as to what the response was, even if you don't know the specific response
code.
For an explanation of each category - and each individual status code - click on the
corresponding link below or go to our complete list of HTTP status codes.
• 1xx - Informational: The server has received the request and is continuing the
process
• 2xx - Successful: The request was successful and the browser has received
the expected information
• 3xx (Redirection): You have been redirected and the completion of the
request requires further action
• 4xx (Client Error): The website or the page could not be reached, either the
page is unavailable or the request contains bad syntax
• 5xx (Server Error): While the request appears to be valid, the server could not
complete the request
1xx Informational
100 Continue
102 Processing
2xx Succesful
200 OK
201 Created
202 Accepted
204 No Content
207 Multi-Status
226 IM Used
3xx Redirection
300 Multiple Choices
401 Unauthorized
403 Forbidden
409 Conflict
410 Gone
423 Locked
2. Check the URL you typed in. Did you make a mistake somewhere? If the URL
you typed is not exactly right a 404 is to be expected (unless a 3xx redirect is
set up)
3. If no mistake was made, try again from a different device like your mobile
phone or tablet. If it works from a different device it's most likely due to
browser cache and cookies. Clear the browser cache and delete cookies, then
try to access the page again.
If none of the above tricks worked, it's likely that the piece of content was deleted
or some other way moved. If the content was moved, which caused it to change
URL, then you should make sure to set up a redirect that points from the old URL to
the new one. That way you're sure that anyone looking for the page can still find it.
If it was deleted, then a 404 error is the right response as the page truly was not
found on your website and everything is working as it should.
If you see a lot of your visitors ending up on this page, then it's most likely
due to one of 3 things:
1. You have an internal link on your website pointing to the page. If that's the
case, you should remove (or change) this link so it no longer points to a page
that is not found.
2. External websites link to the page. This is trickier as you can't simply change
it (although you can reach out to the websites and ask them to change it). A
more simple thing for you to do would be to add a 301 redirect and point
from the page to a different page on your website. That way you lead people
to a page that is working, while also being a SEO-friendly option.
3. The page is still showing up in Google's search results and sending traffic to
your website. While this is usually short-lived, it is possible that a 404 page
can stay in the search results for a while, as a 404 does not tell Googlebot
whether the page is temporarily or permanently missing. If this is happening,
you'll need to get the page back quickly or redirect it to a different page, so
you won't lose your rankings in Google.
Find 404 pages in Google Analytics
Have you ever wondered if there’s a way to find 404 pages in Google Analytics?
Well, the good news is, there are ways to find them within your analytics setup. Now
this can sometimes come down to how your website is configured. One way to find
them is to check by page title - Your 404 page will very likely have “404” or “Page
not found” in the title. It’s very easy to find the 404 page this way:
Now this is not the only way to set it up, but there is a very good chance that you
can find the pages this way.
How to fix 503 errors
The 503 response code means "Service Unavailable" and happens when a server is
currently not ready to handle the request. This can be either due to the server being
down for maintenance or if it is overloaded.
If this error occurs on your own website, you need to have a look at your server, as
something is making it unable to process the requests made.
Unfortunately it's not always easy and simple to fix. A 503 response code can be
due to many things, but at least you know it's server-related and not client-side like
with a 404 error.
Here's a list of steps you can go through to identify and fix a 503 error:
1. Is your website still running and receiving traffic? Check your Analytics tools
or server logs to see if other visitors are getting through to your website.
3. If you're receiving huge amounts of website traffic, the server is most likely
overloaded and returning 503 errors because it doesn't have the resources to
keep up. Before fixing such an issue you need to identify it the traffic is from
real visitors or if you're the victim of a DoS or DDoS attack.
4. Identifying a DoS or DDoS attack can be hard, but the most effective ways
are:
1. Checking if one or more IP addresses make a lot of requests
2. The TTL (time to live) on a ping request times out
3. Analyzing the server logs and seeing huge spikes in traffic
6. If it is not a DoS or DDoS attack, then your website has most likely become
more popular than your server can handle. The best way to fix such an issue
is to look at connection limits, bandwidth throttling, system resources, fail-
safes that might have triggered or anything that might be limiting server
performance. Essentially you'll need to upgrade your server so it has the
proper resources to handle the traffic.
The above list is great for troubleshooting one-off 503 errors. But if it happens on a
regular basis, then it might be a more permanent problem with your server that you
should dive deeper into fixing. This can be inefficient processes using up all of your
resources or your server simply not having enough allocated resources to handle
the traffic your website is receiving.
What status code is returned by a website when the browser request is
successful?
With all these HTTP status codes - It can be a bit daunting to figure if any of them
are good. But some of them are.
A browser will return a 2xx status code if the browser request was successful. So a
2xx code is the one you want to see. The 200 status code means that the browser’s
request was successful and received, understood, and accepted