Business 2 CommunityHTTP Status Codes and What They Mean
WordPress makes the web easy for non-technical people. But every once in a while something technical comes up and you need to know how to deal with it.
HTTP status codes are one of these very things. These codes tell us what is happening with your server, site and specific pages on your site.
Rather than explaining every single-status code, I wanted to talk about three specific codes and why they come up and how to deal with them.
500 Internal Server Error
Many times when your site goes down you will see the dreaded 500 error. A 500 error signifies that the server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.
There may be too many processes running on your server or something is spinning out of control. Nine times out of 10 a call to your web hosting company will remedy this error. Something out of your control has gone on and your hosting package needs a reset.
When it comes to WordPress and the 500 error two common things can trigger a 500 error:
1) Too many 404 pages will cause the site’s processes to spin out of control.
2) An inordinate amount of spam from the same IP address.
Mind your 404 pages and redirect accordingly, and double-check your site’s spam comments and permanently delete the comments.
404 Error
A 404 error says that a page/post on your site no longer exists at the desired url. This happens either because you have deleted the page or changed the title of the page and the permalink (url) also changed.
A good rule of thumb is to sign your site up for Google Webmaster Tools and make sure your 404 pages are minimal. If a page’s url has changed, simply 301 redirect the old page’s url to the new page and the user is then forwarded seamlessly.
301 Redirect
A 301 redirect is a permanent forwarding of one url to another. The best use case for a 301 is to solve your 404 challenges or if your site’s architecture and categories change. Here’s an easy way to handle 301s on your site.
I hope this helps. Don’t let these technical codes interfere with your WordPress Development and scare you. Once you understand what they are, and why they happen they are easy to fix.
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: HTTP Status Codes and What They Mean
More Tech articles from Business 2 Community:
