200 OK is the standard success response. What the content means depends on the method: for GET it is the requested resource, for HEAD the same headers without a body, and for POST usually the result of the action or a description of it.
A 200 is heuristically cacheable. Unless Cache-Control or Expires say otherwise, caches may store and reuse it for a period they estimate themselves, often based on Last-Modified. Validators such as ETag and Last-Modified let clients check later with a conditional request whether their copy is still current; the answer can then be 304 Not Modified.
A 200 says nothing about whether the content is what the user wanted. Error pages, empty pages and login walls are sometimes served with 200, which hides the problem from browsers, monitoring tools and search engines.
Example response
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2026 10:15:32 GMT
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 85
Cache-Control: public, max-age=600
ETag: "5f2b-1a3c"
Last-Modified: Wed, 28 Oct 2026 08:02:11 GMT
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<title>Welcome</title>
<h1>Hello, world</h1>
</html>SEO and redirect checking
Your canonical URLs should return 200, and the last hop of every redirect chain should end on one. Google considers 200 pages for indexing, but if the content looks like an error, for example a "page not found" message or an empty page, Search Console reports a soft 404 and the page is not indexed. Use real 404 or 410 responses for missing pages.
In a redirect check, a chain that reaches a 200 after a single permanent redirect is ideal. Make sure the final URL is the one you expect: a 200 on the homepage or a login page after a redirect often means a broken deep link. The Redirect Chain Checker shows every hop up to the final 200.
Common causes and use cases
- A page, file or API resource exists and was served successfully.
- Soft 404: a missing page shows a "not found" message but returns 200. Configure the server to send 404 or 410 instead.
- An error or maintenance page returns 200. During maintenance, return 503 with
Retry-After. - A bot challenge or consent page returns 200 instead of the real content. TrueURL flags common challenge pages, but it cannot recognise every interstitial.