Introduction to HTTP Status Codes
Google’s Search Relations team recently shared insights about how the search engine handles HTTP status codes during a "Search Off the Record" podcast. Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt from Google discussed several status code categories commonly misunderstood by SEO professionals.
How Google Views Certain HTTP Status Codes
The podcast didn’t cover every HTTP status code, but it focused on categories that often cause confusion among SEO practitioners. Splitt emphasized that these status codes are important for site owners and SEOs because they tell a story about what happened when a particular request came in.
The 1xx Codes: Completely Ignored
Google’s crawlers ignore all status codes in the 1xx range, including newer features like "early hints" (HTTP 103). Illyes explained that Google will pass through 1xx status codes without noticing them and will only notice the next non-100 status code instead. This means implementing early hints might help user experience, but won’t directly benefit your SEO.
Redirects: Simpler Than Many SEOs Believe
While SEO professionals often debate which redirect type to use (301, 302, 307, 308), Google’s approach focuses mainly on whether redirects are permanent or temporary. Illyes stated that for Google search, it’s just like ‘yeah, it was a redirection.’ They kind of care about in canonicalization whether something was temporary or permanent, but otherwise, they just see it was a redirection. This doesn’t mean redirect implementation is unimportant, but it suggests the permanent vs. temporary distinction is more critical than the specific code number.
Client Error Codes: Standard Processing
The 4xx range of status codes functions largely as expected. Google appropriately processes standard codes like 404 (not found) and 410 (gone), which remain essential for proper crawl management. The team humorously mentioned status code 418 ("I’m a teapot"), an April Fool’s joke in the standards, which has no SEO impact.
Network Errors in Search Console: Looking Deeper
Many mysterious network errors in Search Console originate from deeper technical layers below HTTP. Illyes explained that every now and then you would get these weird messages in Search Console that like there was something with the network, and that can actually happen in these layers that we are talking about. When you see network-related crawl errors, you may need to investigate lower-level protocols like TCP, UDP, or DNS.
What Wasn’t Discussed But Still Matters
The podcast didn’t cover many status codes that definitely matter to Google, including:
- 200 OK (the standard successful response)
- 500-level server errors (which can affect crawling and indexing)
- 429 Too Many Requests (rate limiting)
- Various other specialized codes
Practical Takeaways
While this wasn’t a comprehensive guide to HTTP status codes, the discussion revealed several practical insights:
- For redirects, focus primarily on the permanent vs. temporary distinction
- Don’t invest resources in optimizing 1xx responses specifically for Google
- When troubleshooting network errors, look beyond HTTP to deeper protocol layers
- Continue to implement standard status codes correctly, including those not specifically discussed
Conclusion
As web technology evolves with HTTP/3 and QUIC, understanding how Google processes these signals can help you build more effective technical SEO strategies without overcomplicating implementation. By focusing on the key takeaways from the podcast and continuing to implement standard status codes correctly, you can improve your website’s crawlability and indexing, ultimately leading to better search engine rankings and more traffic to your site.