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Rule · HTTP and hosting

Intended URLs return HTTP 200

SEO-HTTP-01C1 Mechanism· w8gate: indexing

Class
C1 Mechanism
Weight
8
Severity on fail
critical
Applies to
Google

Test this rule on a live site with the XML sitemap checker, the noindex checker or the redirect checker. Free, no account needed.

Scope and evidence

Evaluated on each member of I. The book marks this requirement ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENT, SEARCH-ENGINE-SPECIFIC, and the scanner treats it as a gate: indexing rule: a failure on an intended page removes that page from the eligible set instead of entering the achieved share.

Hops and loops follow §3.12. {via_clause} is empty for a direct response, or " (reached via {hops} redirects from {original})". {chain_problem} is "the redirect chain loops" or "the redirect chain exceeds 10 hops".

Fail conditions

Each condition has a stable code and a reason template. The evaluator fills the placeholders from observed values only; no sentence in a report is generated.

  • client_error

    {url}{via_clause} returned {status}. Google only indexes pages served with HTTP 200, does not index URLs that return a 4xx status code, and removes already indexed URLs that start returning one.

  • server_error

    {url}{via_clause} returned {status}. Google treats 5xx and 429 responses as server errors: its crawlers slow down, and already indexed URLs are preserved for a time but eventually dropped.

  • no_response

    {url} could not be fetched ({error}). Google only indexes pages served with HTTP 200.

  • unresolved_redirect

    {url} never reaches a final response ({chain_problem}). Google's crawlers follow up to 10 redirect hops, and Google only indexes pages served with HTTP 200.

The documented fix

Serve every URL you want indexed with a 200 at its final address. If the URL is gone on purpose, remove it from sitemaps and internal links; if it moved, redirect it permanently and list the destination instead.

Sources, quoted

These are the passages the rule rests on, stored once in the knowledge base and emitted exactly as written. A citation marked for specific conditions appears only on findings with those codes.