Technical SEO
HTTP status code
An HTTP status code is a three-digit value in a server response that communicates the outcome of an HTTP request.
What it means
Classes describe informational, successful, redirection, client-error and server-error outcomes. Crawlers and browsers use the status before interpreting the body: a styled error page can still return 200, while a 301 response normally supplies its destination in the Location header.
Why it matters
Accurate status semantics help clients decide whether to process content, follow a new location, retry later or treat the resource as missing. Incorrect codes create soft 404s, broken migrations, cache confusion and misleading Monitoring.
Example
A live article returns 200, a permanently moved article returns 301 to its equivalent, a removed URL without replacement returns 404 or 410 and a brief maintenance outage returns 503. Verify the response without automatically following redirects.
Common mistakes
Do not infer status from visible copy, return 200 for every application route or use 404 and 503 interchangeably. Avoid permanent redirects for temporary conditions and persistent server errors as a crawl-control tactic.
How AYSA handles this
Signals reviewed
Initial status, response headers, redirect target, rendered body, behavior across representative routes
Problem AYSA can identify
AYSA can detect status-body mismatches, persistent server errors, failed redirects and templates returning success for missing resources.
Recommendation prepared
The proposal specifies the semantically correct response and any destination or retry behavior for the affected route.
Approval preview
The user sees raw response evidence, visible output, affected template scope and the proposed status behavior.
Execution
AYSA can adjust supported WordPress response behavior; web-server, CDN and application-router codes require their owning deployment path.
Verification
AYSA sends uncached requests without automatic redirect following and confirms status, headers, body and final destination.
Limits
AYSA cannot control intermediary caches or guarantee how quickly search systems revisit a corrected response.
Sources and further reading
- Google Crawling Infrastructure — How HTTP status codes affect Google crawlers — Official platform documentation
- MDN — HTTP response status codes — Web platform reference
- Google Search Central — In-depth guide to how Google Search works — Official platform documentation
Written by Marius Dosinescu. Reviewed by AYSA SEO Editorial Team · 2026-07-28 00:00:00.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions
Can a page look like an error while returning HTTP 200?
Yes. That mismatch is a common source of soft 404 classification, because the successful status contradicts the error-like body.
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