HTTP Status Codes for SEO: 200, 301, 302, 404, 410 and 5xx

Every time a browser or Googlebot requests a page, your server answers with an HTTP status code: a three-digit number that says in an instant whether the page exists, has moved or is broken. Visitors never see it, but for search engines it is the core language your site speaks. Understand that language and you prevent good pages from dropping out of the index or link equity from leaking away. In this article you will learn which SEO signal each common status code sends, and when to use 410 instead of 404.

What is an HTTP status code?

A status code is the first thing your server sends back on every request. The number falls into five ranges, and the first digit immediately tells you the type of answer:

• 2xx (success): the page was found and delivered.
• 3xx (redirect): the page lives somewhere else, go there.
• 4xx (client error): the page does not exist or may not be viewed.
• 5xx (server error): something went wrong on your side.

For SEO, this is not a technical detail. Google uses these codes to decide which URLs it indexes, which it drops and how it passes link equity. A wrong code on an important sales page can make that page invisible in the search results, while you notice nothing at all on screen. That is why status codes belong in every serious technical check, and why this is one of the building blocks you will recognise from what is SEO.

200: all good

The 200 (OK) is the code you want to see for every page that has to make money. It means: the page exists, loads correctly and may be indexed. If Googlebot requests your product page and gets a 200 back, the technical condition for ranking is met.

The pitfall lies in pages that look like an error message to the visitor (“this page no longer exists”) but still return a 200. That is called a soft 404. Google then gets the signal that a valid page is there, while there is nothing of substance to be found. The result is wasted crawl budget and an index full of empty pages. The rule: let a real page return a 200, and a disappeared page an honest 404 or 410.

301 and 302: the difference that counts

The 3xx range handles redirects, and this is where you make the most SEO gains, or do the most damage. Two codes do the work:

• 301 (moved permanently): tells Google the page has moved for good. The signals and link equity from the old URL transfer to the new one. This is what you use after a website migration, when you introduce a new URL structure or when you merge two pages.
• 302 (moved temporarily): says the move is a passing thing. Google keeps the old URL in the index and does not pass on the link equity (or does so far more cautiously).

The classic mistake is using a 302 where a 301 belongs. If you move a page permanently but set a 302, your old URL keeps competing and you build no authority on the new one. If you doubt between the two, ask a single question: will the old URL ever come back? If not, it is a 301.

Watch out for stacked redirects too. If URL A points to B and B to C, you get a chain that slows your site down and wastes crawl budget. How to track those down and flatten them is covered in fixing redirect chains.

404 and 410: when do you choose which?

This is where many people get stuck. Both codes say “this page is not here”, but the strength of the signal differs.

• 404 (Not Found): the page was not found. This can be temporary (a typo in the URL, a page that is coming back shortly) or permanent. Google cannot be sure and therefore keeps retrying the URL for a while before it removes it from the index.
• 410 (Gone): the page was deliberately and permanently removed. This is a stronger, more explicit signal. Google takes it more seriously and usually drops the URL from the index faster than with a 404.

The practical rule: use 410 when you delete a page for good and there is no logical replacement for it. Think of an expired campaign page, a product you will never carry again, or thin content you are cleaning up. If you expect the page to return, or you are not sure, a 404 is the safer choice.

An important nuance: if the disappeared page has link equity or traffic, cutting it off with a 404 or 410 is rarely the best move. A 301 to the most relevant existing page preserves that value. You only delete when there really is no worthy alternative. Whether a URL then truly vanishes from the search results is something you check via indexing your website.

5xx: the server that stumbles

The 5xx range means something went wrong on your side. The best known are the 500 (internal server error) and the 503 (service temporarily unavailable). For SEO these are the most dangerous codes, because they hit pages that normally rank perfectly well.

If Googlebot repeatedly runs into 5xx errors, it slows down the crawl to spare your server, and with persistent errors pages can drop out of the index. An incidental 503 during maintenance is no disaster, certainly not if you send the right header saying “come back later”. Structural 5xx errors are a disaster: they point to an unstable site and must be fixed as a priority.

Status codes are a means, not an end

You can chase a perfectly clean status code report forever, but that is not what it is about. A handful of 404s on pages nobody visits is not a problem worth losing sleep over. A wrong 302 on your most important service page is. Our rule of thumb: we steer on customers and revenue, not on a dashboard full of green ticks.

At Customer Impact, checking status codes is part of a broader technical audit, in which we treat SEO as the acquisition layer of one single growth engine: optimised for pipeline, and built so that you not only rank in Google but also get cited by AI search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity. If you want an experienced SEO specialist to review your site for wrong codes and leaking link equity, we are happy to help.

Have your status codes checked

Wrong HTTP status codes are insidious: you notice nothing until a page quietly slips out of the index. We track them down, set the right 301s, choose deliberately between 404 and 410 and point the freed-up value at the pages that bring you customers. No vanity numbers, just honest technical work that delivers results.

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