Working with big brands to improve their SEO means having to work through a lot of technical server-side issues. We often catch ourselves wading waist deep in technical jargon with a audience that may not understand all the techno-babble.

Most frequently, we get asked to explain the differences between major response codes to server requests what those codes mean. There are really over 80 unique response codes that your browser can receive as a response to various requests. Here, we’re just focusing on seven of the most frequently encountered.

If these status codes were conversations between your site and Google, they might go a little something like this:

200: OK

The site is up and running and answering requests.

You: “Hey, Google?”
Google: “Whaddup?”
Y: “Oh, nothing. Site’s up and running great.”
G: “That’s nice.”
Y: “Want to come check it out?”
G: “I’m kinda busy right now.”
Y: “Oh… Oh, I get it. No worries. Some other time, then. We do have some pretty fresh content we just posted–”
G: “Content? I’ll be right over.”

301: Permanent Redirect

Content on this page has moves permanently to another URI.

You: “Hey, Google?”
Google: “Whaddup?”
Y: “You know this content you really loved? Well, we moved it to a better location on our site. It’s now over here, permanently.”
G: “Oh yeah, that makes total sense. Thanks for the heads up, dude!”
Y: “No problem, man.”
G: “I’ll make sure and send everyone to the new page to find this awesome content.”
Y: “You’re the best, Google.”
G: “I know, dude. I know.”

302: Temporary Redirect

The content for this page has been temporarily moved to another URI.

You: “Hey, Google?”
Google: “Whaddup?”
Y: “We’re reorganizing the content on our site. So we’ve moved this content to a new location temporarily while we get everything worked out.”
G: “Good to know. Don’t worry, we won’t penalize your original page while you finish your re-org.”
Y: “Thanks, Google.”
G: “Just don’t let that that old page go too long without its content. There will be consequences.”
Y: “Oh, sure, Google… Hey, what do you mean by–”
G: “There will be consequences. End of line.”

403: Forbidden

Access to this URI is forbidden.

You: “Hey, Google?”
Google: “Whaddup?”
Y: “I can’t let you bring those people in here.”
G: “Why not?”
Y: “This section of the site requires special clearance, and they don’t have access.”
G: “I understand.”
Y: “In fact, it’s probably better that you forget about this section of the site entirely.”
G: “What section of the site?”
Y: “Exactly.”

404: Not Found

URI is not found on this server.

Google: “Hello?”
You: “…..”
G: “This is Google. I’ve got some nice people here I wanted to show around. Anybody home?”
Y: “…..”
G: “Sorry, guys. Maybe we can try again some other time.”

410: Gone

URI has been removed and will not return.

You: “Hey, Google?”
Google: “Whaddup?”
Y: “We had some older content that just wasn’t providing any value…”
G: “Uh-huh?”
Y: “It was really outdated and couldn’t keep up with the fresher stuff.”
G: “I see…”
Y: “So, well, we got rid of it.”
G: “What did you do with it?”
Y: “Nuked it from orbit. Only way to be sure.”

503: Service Unavailable

URI is not available at this time.

You: “Hey, Google?”
Google: “Whaddup?”
Y: “Time for some spring-cleaning around the site. We’ll be closed for a little bit, but we should be up and running again soon.”
G: “Sure thing. I’ll just everything on hold until you get back up and running.”
Y: “Thanks, Google.”
G: “…..”
Y: “You’re the best, Google?”
G: “I know, dude. I know.”