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Every time a browser requests a page, the server replies with the page plus a set of HTTP headers. Headers are small pieces of metadata that describe the response: the status code, the content type, caching rules, the server software and more. Users never see them, but they control how browsers and search engine crawlers treat your page.
This tool sends a request to the URL you enter and shows the status code and headers that come back. The status code is the headline. A 200 means the page loaded normally, a 301 or 302 means it redirects somewhere else, a 404 means the page was not found, and a 500 range code means the server hit an error. Getting these right is fundamental to SEO.
Status codes tell Google how to handle a URL. A page that should rank must return 200. A page that has permanently moved should return a 301 so its ranking value passes to the new address. A soft error, where a missing page returns 200 instead of 404, confuses crawlers and wastes crawl budget. Checking the status code is the first thing to do when a page is not ranking as expected.
Other headers matter too. The content type header tells the browser whether it is receiving HTML, an image or something else. Caching headers control how long browsers and networks store your page, which affects speed. Headers that reveal the server and security settings can also flag configuration issues. Reading the raw headers is the quickest way to confirm a page is configured the way you intended.
Paste a full URL, including https, and run the check. The result shows the status code at the top, colour coded so a healthy 200 is easy to spot, followed by every header the server returned. To trace a redirect, check both the old and the new URL and confirm the old one returns a 301 pointing to the right place.
Use it after any change that touches how pages are served: a migration, a new redirect rule, a caching or security update. If a page suddenly drops out of search, checking its headers often reveals the cause in seconds, whether that is an accidental redirect, a server error or a missing page returning the wrong code.
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