HTTP Status, Redirects, and Response Time: What BearAudit Flags
Non-200 status codes, long redirect chains, and slow responses can hurt SEO and UX. How to read and fix these checks in BearAudit's verifications. Use the http category to list affected pages.
BearAudit runs three HTTP checks on every crawled page: status code, redirect count, and response time. Each can affect how search engines and users see your site.
Status code (errors)
- Non-200 — The page didn't return HTTP 200 OK. Common cases: 404 (not found), 500 (server error), 301/302 (redirect). BearAudit reports these as errors because they can block indexing or send users to the wrong place.
- Fix — Resolve 404s (redirect or remove), fix server errors, and ensure important URLs ultimately return 200. Use the dashboard's "Non-200 count" to see how many pages are affected.
Redirects (warnings)
- Too many redirects — BearAudit warns when a URL goes through more than two redirects before landing. Long chains slow down crawlers and users and can dilute link equity.
- Fix — Shorten chains: A → B → C should become A → C where possible. Update internal links and canonicals to point to the final URL.
Response time (warnings)
- Slow response — If the server takes longer than 2 seconds to respond, BearAudit warns. Slow pages hurt Core Web Vitals and can be crawled less often.
- Fix — Optimize server and app (caching, CDN, faster hosting). Check the dashboard for average and max response times across the property.
Use the http category in verifications to list all pages with these issues, then tackle status codes first, then redirects, then speed.
For more on redirects, see What are redirect chains? in our glossary.