When you visit a website, your web browser sends a request to the webserver. The web server then accepts that request and sends a response back. This response is called a response. Usually, it is denoted by a 3-digit number called the HTTP status code. This guide will teach you why it's important to pay attention to the HTTP status code.
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By understanding what the different HTTP status codes mean, you can troubleshoot website issues more effectively and improve the user experience on your site. For example, if you see a lot of 404 errors in your web server logs, that means visitors are trying to access pages that don't exist on your site. You can use this information to create new pages or redirect visitors to existing pages.
HTTP status codes are used to communicate with browsers, and they can tell you a lot about what's going on with your website. In general, HTTP status codes fall into one of five categories:

200 OK - This status code indicates that the request was successful.
301 Permanent Redirect - The web page you are attempting to visit has been permanently moved to a new location.
302 Temporary Redirect - Visitors are passed to the new page. However, link equity is not passed.
400 Bad Request - This status code indicates that there was an error with the request.
401 Unauthorized - This status code indicates that the user is not authorized to access the requested resource.
403 Forbidden - This status code indicates that the user is not allowed to access the requested resource.
404 Not Found - This status code indicates that the requested resource could not be found.
500 Internal Server Error - This status code indicates that there was an error on the server.
503 Service Unavailable - This code means that the server is unavailable, usually when the server is overloaded or down for maintenance.
By understanding the HTTP status codes, you can effectively manage your website and improve the user experience. You can troubleshoot website issues, create new pages, or redirect visitors to existing pages by paying attention to the different codes.
Overall, using HTTP status codes is a helpful way to manage your website and ensure that users have a positive experience on your site.
HTTP status codes are lot more prevalent than we see them. For instance, if you try to visit http://cnn.com, it 301 redirects to http://www.cnn.com.
http://www.cnn.com again 301 redirects to https://www.cnn.com.
Finally, https://www.cnn.com 302 redirects to https://edition.cnn.com and https://edition.cnn.com responds the web browser with the 200 OK status code. This is known as a redirect chain.





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