Professional Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

63 Professional Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Check the status code that your server sends to search engines

Some websites cannot get high search engine rankings because the web server on

which the web pages are hosted returns a wrong HTTP status code.

If you use the wrong status code, search engines won't index your site

Normally, your web server should return a "200 OK" message when a search engine

spider requests your web pages. Unfortunately, some web servers return error

messages and other response codes.

That means that search engine spiders might not be able to index your web pages

although your web pages look fine in your web browser.

IBP's search engine spider simulator checks the status code of your site

IBP's Search Engine Spider Simulator is very easy to use. Select Tools > Search

Engine Spider Simulator in IBP's main window to start the Search Engine Spider

Simulator.

You can also select the search engine spider simulator in the Tools menu in IBP's

main window.