Status Codes

SEO

Also: HTTP Status Codes · Response Codes

200Page works fine

301Moved permanently

404Page not found

410/503Gone for good / temporarily down

Quick definition

Status codes are the three-digit signals a server sends every time a browser or search engine requests a page. They tell the requester what happened: the page loaded fine (200), it moved somewhere else (301), it doesn't exist (404), it's permanently gone (410), or the server is temporarily unavailable (503).

How it varies across Australia

Sites that go through a rebrand, replatform or URL restructure without proper redirect mapping typically lose a noticeable chunk of organic traffic within weeks. The Australian sites we see recover fastest are the ones that treat status code auditing as a standing task, not a one-off migration checklist item.

See technical SEO health across Australian industries →

The codes that matter

OK(200)

The page loaded correctly. This is what you want for every live page.

Normal state

Moved Permanently(301)

The page has a new permanent address. Passes ranking value to the new URL.

Use for permanent moves

Not Found(404)

The page doesn't exist at this address. Common but costly if it used to rank.

Check for lost equity

Gone(410)

The page is deliberately and permanently removed. Speeds up deindexing.

Use for intentional removal

Service Unavailable(503)

The server is temporarily down, usually for maintenance. Tells search engines to retry later.

Use during planned downtime

What it actually means

Status codes are the server's honest answer to a simple question: what happened when you asked for this page? Most of the time the answer is 200, which just means everything worked and here's the content. The interesting codes are the ones that mean something changed.

301 means the page moved permanently and here's the new address. Search engines pass most of the page's ranking value to the new URL when they see a 301, which is why redirect mapping matters so much during a site migration or a URL structure change.

404 means the page simply isn't there. That's fine in small doses. Every site has some. The problem is a 404 on a URL that used to have real traffic and backlinks pointing at it. That's lost equity sitting on the table.

410 is the deliberate cousin of 404. It tells search engines the page isn't coming back, ever, which speeds up deindexing. Useful when you're intentionally retiring content rather than just misplacing it.

503 means the server is temporarily unavailable, usually during maintenance. Handled correctly, it tells Google to come back later rather than assuming the page is gone. Handled badly, a long 503 window can start dropping pages from the index.

A 404 isn't a crime. A 404 that used to rank for your best keyword and nobody noticed for six months is.

How it shows up

Status codes show up in Search Console's Pages report, under Indexing, where Google lists exactly which URLs it's hitting a 404, 5xx or redirect chain on. They also show up in server logs, in crawler tools like Screaming Frog, and in the quiet decline of organic traffic when a high-value page starts returning something other than 200 without anyone noticing.

Redirect chains, where a 301 points to another 301 which points to a third URL, are a particularly common symptom of a site that's been redesigned more than once without cleanup.

The Australian context

Australian businesses migrating from older CMS platforms or agency-built sites onto Shopify, WordPress or headless setups are a common source of mass 404 events. The pattern we see most is a URL structure change during a rebrand where nobody exports the old sitemap first, so months of accumulated backlinks and rankings point at pages that no longer exist.

Where people get this wrong

Leaving old URLs to 404 after a site migration instead of redirecting them.A 301 passes ranking signals to the new page. A 404 passes nothing. The difference between the two choices can be the majority of your organic traffic recovery timeline.

Using a 302 (temporary redirect) when the move is actually permanent.Search engines treat 302s as temporary and don't fully transfer ranking value. If the new URL is staying, use a 301, not a 302.

Ignoring 404s because 'Google will figure it out'.Google eventually deindexes persistent 404s, but the ranking equity built up on that URL doesn't automatically transfer anywhere. It just disappears.

Common questions

What's the difference between a 404 and a 410?

Both mean the page isn't there. A 404 leaves the door open, the page might come back later. A 410 says it's gone for good. Search engines tend to deindex a 410 faster because it removes the ambiguity a 404 leaves behind.

Should I redirect every 404 on my site?

No. Only redirect 404s that had real traffic, backlinks or rankings. Redirecting every discontinued product or old campaign page to your homepage creates soft 404 issues and dilutes relevance signals. A clean 404 is fine for pages nobody was linking to.

Will a 503 during maintenance hurt my rankings?

A short 503 window, a few hours, is generally safe because search engines interpret it as temporary and revisit later. Extended 503 periods, days or weeks, risk pages being dropped from the index because the server appears permanently unavailable.

How do I find broken links on my site?

Search Console's Pages report under Indexing lists URLs returning errors. Crawler tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb give a fuller picture including redirect chains. Server log analysis catches errors search engines have already hit that Search Console hasn't surfaced yet.

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About New Rebellion

New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.

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