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HTTP Status Codes for SEO: 200, 301, 302, 404, 410, 5xx
A practical DomainLens guide to HTTP Status Codes for SEO: 200, 301, 302, 404, 410, 5xx, focused on 200 OK, 301 vs 302, 404 vs 410, 5xx errors.
Run a fresh DomainLens audit and use the report as your priority list.
Overview
HTTP Status Codes for SEO: 200, 301, 302, 404, 410, 5xx is useful when you need a clear way to separate cosmetic SEO work from issues that can block crawling, indexing, rankings, or search snippets. Start with evidence, then decide what deserves engineering time.
Use an automated audit to collect the baseline, then review the page manually for context, search intent, and business priority.
Why it matters
The most common problems usually sit around 200 OK, 301 vs 302, 404 vs 410, 5xx errors. These signals influence how easily search engines discover pages, understand content, and trust the final URL they should rank.
A good SEO workflow turns these checks into a short fix list with owner, impact, effort, and validation steps.
What to check
- Review 200 OK and record the current state, expected state, and exact URL affected.
- Review 301 vs 302 and record the current state, expected state, and exact URL affected.
- Review 404 vs 410 and record the current state, expected state, and exact URL affected.
- Review 5xx errors and record the current state, expected state, and exact URL affected.
Common mistakes
- Fixing 200 OK without validating the rendered page, canonical target, and indexability after deployment.
- Fixing 301 vs 302 without validating the rendered page, canonical target, and indexability after deployment.
- Fixing 404 vs 410 without validating the rendered page, canonical target, and indexability after deployment.
- Fixing 5xx errors without validating the rendered page, canonical target, and indexability after deployment.
Next step
Run a fresh DomainLens audit, compare the report with this guide, and prioritize fixes that affect indexability, snippets, internal linking, or Core Web Vitals first.