HTTP Status Code Checker - Check Website Status Online

What Are HTTP Status Codes?

HTTP status codes are three-digit numbers returned by a web server every time a browser, search engine bot, or any HTTP client requests a URL. They tell the requesting party exactly what happened with the request. Was the page found? Did it move somewhere else? Is the server broken? The status code answers all of these questions in a single numeric response.

Status codes are defined in the HTTP specification, most recently RFC 7231 (HTTP/1.1 Semantics and Content), and they form one of the most fundamental building blocks of how the World Wide Web operates. Every single page load, image request, API call, and stylesheet fetch results in an HTTP status code, whether visible to the user or not.

Status codes are grouped into five categories based on their first digit:

• 1xx (Informational) — The request was received and the process is continuing. These are rare in everyday browsing. Examples: 100 Continue, 101 Switching Protocols.
• 2xx (Success) — The request was successfully received, understood, and accepted. The most common is 200 OK, which means the page loaded as expected.
• 3xx (Redirection) — Further action is needed to complete the request. The server is telling the client to look somewhere else. Examples: 301 Moved Permanently, 302 Found, 304 Not Modified.
• 4xx (Client Error) — The request contains bad syntax or cannot be fulfilled. The most well-known is 404 Not Found. Others include 403 Forbidden, 401 Unauthorized, and 400 Bad Request.
• 5xx (Server Error) — The server failed to fulfill a valid request. Examples include 500 Internal Server Error, 502 Bad Gateway, and 503 Service Unavailable.

Understanding these codes is essential for anyone who owns, manages, develops, or optimizes a website.

Common HTTP Status Codes Explained

While there are dozens of HTTP status codes, a handful account for the vast majority of responses you will encounter. Here are the most important ones to know:

• 200 OK — The server successfully returned the requested page. This is the ideal response for every page on your website. Search engines can crawl and index pages that return 200.
• 301 Moved Permanently — The page has permanently moved to a new URL. Search engines transfer the original page's ranking signals (link equity, authority) to the new location and update their index. Use this for permanent URL changes after a site migration or restructuring.
• 302 Found (Temporary Redirect) — The page has temporarily moved to a different URL. Search engines keep the original URL indexed because the move is not permanent. Use this for A/B testing, temporary promotions, or maintenance pages.
• 304 Not Modified — The page has not changed since the last request. The browser can use its cached version instead of downloading the page again. This improves load times and reduces server bandwidth.
• 404 Not Found — The server cannot find the requested page. The page may have been deleted, moved without a redirect, or the URL may be misspelled. Search engines will eventually drop 404 pages from their index. Check your site for 404s using our Redirect Checker tool.
• 500 Internal Server Error — The server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request. This is a generic server-side error often caused by PHP errors, database failures, or misconfigurations. Persistent 500 errors can cause pages to be deindexed by search engines.
• 503 Service Unavailable — The server is temporarily unable to handle the request, usually due to being overloaded or undergoing maintenance. If the 503 response includes a Retry-After header, search engines will temporarily deindex the page but retry later.

Why You Should Check HTTP Status Codes

Checking HTTP status codes is one of the simplest yet most impactful things you can do for website maintenance and SEO. Here is why it matters:

• Search engine crawling — Bots like Googlebot rely on status codes to decide whether to crawl, index, redirect, or skip pages. A 200 means crawl and index. A 301 means update the index to the new URL. A 404 means eventually drop from the index. A 5xx means retry later, and if persistent, deindex the page.
• Link equity preservation — When you change URLs, using the correct 301 redirect ensures that all the backlinks, authority, and ranking power built on the old URL transfers to the new one. A missing redirect means lost link equity and a drop in rankings.
• User experience — Users who land on a 404 error page or a 500 error page will leave your site. Broken links and server errors create frustration and erode trust in your brand.
• Crawl budget efficiency — Search engines allocate a limited number of crawl requests to each site. If bots waste those requests on 404 pages, redirect chains, or 500 errors, your important pages get crawled less frequently.
• Technical health monitoring — Sudden spikes in 5xx errors can indicate server problems, code deployments that broke functionality, or database issues that need immediate attention before they affect revenue and rankings.

Use our Redirect Checker to trace redirect chains and verify status codes, or use our HTTP Headers tool to inspect the full set of response headers returned by any URL.

How HTTP Status Codes Affect SEO

Google and other search engines have explicitly stated that HTTP status codes are a critical signal in their crawling and indexing systems. Here is how each category impacts your search performance:

• 2xx codes — Positive signal. The page is accessible and can be indexed. All SEO signals (content, backlinks, meta tags) are evaluated normally.
• 301 redirects — Positive when used correctly. Google transfers approximately the same link equity through a 301 as through a direct link. However, excessive redirect chains (multiple 301s in a row) can dilute the signal and waste crawl budget.
• 302 redirects — Neutral to negative for SEO. Google interprets 302 as temporary and keeps the original URL indexed. If you intended a permanent move, using 302 instead of 301 means the new URL will not accumulate the ranking signals you want.
• 404 errors — Negative. Each 404 page is a dead end for both users and crawlers. A few 404s are normal for any large site, but widespread 404s signal poor site maintenance and waste crawl budget. A custom 404 page can mitigate the user experience impact but does not fix the SEO issue.
• 5xx errors — Severely negative. Google treats persistent 5xx errors as a sign that the site is unreliable. Pages returning 5xx will be deindexed from search results. Even short outages can trigger ranking drops that take time to recover from.

Common HTTP Status Code Mistakes to Avoid

Even experienced webmasters make status code mistakes that hurt their SEO performance:

• Using 302 instead of 301 for permanent moves — If a page has permanently moved and you set up a 302 redirect instead of 301, search engines will continue trying to index the old URL. This splits your ranking signals between two URLs and weakens both.
• Redirect chains — When URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects to URL C, which finally redirects to the real page, you have created a redirect chain. Each hop adds latency and wastes crawl budget. Keep redirect chains to one hop maximum.
• Soft 404 errors — A page that returns a 200 status code but displays "Page Not Found" content is called a soft 404. Search engines cannot distinguish these from real pages without additional signals. Always return an actual 404 or 410 status code for removed pages.
• Ignoring server errors after deployment — Deploying new code without checking status codes can introduce 5xx errors that go unnoticed for days or weeks, causing significant ranking and traffic losses.
• Missing redirects after URL changes — Changing a page URL without setting up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one is one of the most common and damaging SEO mistakes. Always map old URLs to new URLs before making changes.

Professional Tips for Managing HTTP Status Codes

• Automate monitoring — Set up uptime monitoring tools that alert you when critical pages return unexpected status codes, especially 5xx errors that can tank rankings quickly.
• Audit after every migration — After moving to a new domain, redesigning your site structure, or changing your CMS, systematically check every important URL to verify status codes are correct.
• Check both protocols — Always verify that both HTTP and HTTPS versions of your URLs return the correct status codes. A missing HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect is one of the most common configuration errors.
• Use proper 410 status codes — When content has been intentionally and permanently deleted (not moved), use a 410 Gone status code instead of 404. It tells search engines the page is deliberately removed and should be deindexed immediately.
• Verify redirect destinations — Do not just check that a redirect exists. Verify that it points to the correct final URL and does not create a chain or loop.

Use Cases for HTTP Status Code Checking

• SEO audits — Crawl your site and check status codes for every page to identify 404 errors, redirect chains, soft 404s, and server errors that need fixing.
• Post-migration verification &mdash> After a domain change or URL restructuring, verify that all old URLs redirect to the correct new URLs with 301 status codes.
• Server health checks &mdash> Monitor your most important pages to ensure they return 200 OK and detect server outages before they impact users and rankings.
• Link building outreach &mdash> Before reaching out for a link, check the target page to confirm it returns 200 and is not a dead page or redirect to a different domain.
• API debugging &mdash> Verify that your API endpoints return the expected status codes for various request types, authentication states, and error conditions.
• Pre-launch quality assurance &mdash> Test every critical page on a staging or pre-production site before going live to catch status code issues early.
• Competitor analysis &mdash> Check how competitor sites handle deprecated pages, redirects, and error responses to understand their server configuration strategy.

How to Use This Tool

1. Enter the website URL — Type or paste the full URL of the page you want to check into the input field. Include the protocol (http:// or https://).
2. Click Check Status Code — The tool sends an HTTP request to the target URL, reads the server response, and extracts the status code, redirect chain, and response metadata.
3. Review the results — Examine the status code, description, redirect chain (if any), final destination URL, and response time to understand exactly how the server handled your request.

For a deeper analysis of the server's response, use our HTTP Headers tool to inspect all response headers. To trace redirect chains across multiple URLs, try the Redirect Checker. For DNS resolution details, check out our Domain to IP tool.

Related Tools

• Redirect Checker — Trace redirect chains and verify the status code and final destination of any URL.
• HTTP Headers — Inspect all HTTP response headers returned by any URL, including caching, security, and content-type directives.
• Domain to IP — Resolve any domain name to its IP address and check hosting location details.

Privacy and Security

This tool sends a single HTTP request to the URL you enter and returns the status code and redirect information. We do not store the URLs you check, the results you view, or any of the response data. All requests are processed in real time and the data is discarded immediately after returning the result. No cookies, tracking scripts, or analytics collect your activity. Your website research remains completely private.