Status Code Distribution Analyzer

A website can contain hundreds or thousands of URLs, and checking individual HTTP responses manually makes it difficult to understand the overall response health of a URL set. The Status Code Distribution Analyzer gives you a practical overview by grouping HTTP responses into 1xx, 2xx, 3xx, 4xx, and 5xx classes while also showing the exact status codes returned by individual URLs.

Use an XML sitemap, sitemap index, or a pasted list of public URLs to analyze up to 100 URLs in one report.

What Is a Status Code Distribution Analyzer?

A Status Code Distribution Analyzer measures how a group of URLs respond to HTTP requests.

Instead of checking URLs one at a time, the tool summarizes the response pattern across the URLs you provide.

For example, a URL set might contain:

• 80 URLs returning 200 OK
• 10 URLs returning 301 redirects
• 5 URLs returning 404 Not Found
• 3 URLs returning 403 Forbidden
• 2 URLs returning 500 Internal Server Error

This distribution can reveal patterns that are difficult to identify when URLs are inspected individually.

HTTP status codes are only one part of a technical SEO investigation, but they provide an important starting point for understanding whether a URL inventory contains successful responses, redirects, client errors, server errors, or requests that could not be completed.

What the Status Code Distribution Analyzer Checks

PKCapra’s Status Code Distribution Analyzer accepts an XML sitemap, sitemap index, or pasted public URL list and checks the HTTP response received for each URL.

The report includes:

• Total URLs analyzed
• 1xx informational responses
• 2xx successful responses
• 3xx redirections
• 4xx client errors
• 5xx server errors
• Fetch errors
• Exact HTTP status codes
• Status-code meanings
• Count for each exact status code
• Percentage share of each status code
• Overall 2xx success rate
• Overall error rate
• Response time for individual URLs
• Redirect target information when supplied by the server
• URL-level results
• Overall distribution classification

The analyzer does not follow redirects when checking the submitted URLs. This is intentional so that a 301 or 302 remains visible as a 3xx response instead of being replaced by the status of the destination URL.

Why HTTP Status Codes Matter

A single URL returning 200 OK does not tell you how the rest of a website is behaving.

A larger URL set can contain a mixture of:

• Working pages
• Permanent redirects
• Temporary redirects
• Missing pages
• Access restrictions
• Rate-limit responses
• Server failures
• Network or connection errors

Looking at the distribution helps identify patterns and determine where deeper investigation is needed.

For example, a large proportion of 3xx responses may indicate that your sitemap or URL inventory contains many redirected URLs. A group containing 404 responses may contain outdated or removed URLs. A cluster of 5xx responses may indicate server-side availability or application problems.

The distribution itself does not diagnose the cause. It identifies the response patterns that deserve further investigation.

HTTP Status Code Classes Explained

HTTP status codes are commonly grouped into five classes.

1xx — Informational

1xx responses are informational responses.

They indicate that the request has been received or understood and that processing may continue.

They are less commonly encountered as the final response in a basic URL audit, but the analyzer keeps the 1xx class separate when such a response is returned.

2xx — Successful

2xx responses indicate successful processing of the request.

Common examples include:

• 200 OK
• 201 Created
• 202 Accepted
• 204 No Content
• 206 Partial Content

For a normal publicly accessible webpage, 200 OK is the status most commonly expected when the requested resource exists and is successfully returned.

A 2xx response does not automatically mean that the page is useful, indexable, or technically perfect. It simply indicates a successful HTTP response.

3xx — Redirection

3xx responses indicate that the request involves redirection or another form of response requiring additional handling.

Common examples include:

• 301 Moved Permanently
• 302 Found
• 303 See Other
• 304 Not Modified
• 307 Temporary Redirect
• 308 Permanent Redirect

Redirects can be legitimate and useful.

For example, a website migration may permanently redirect an old URL to its new equivalent.

However, a large number of redirected URLs in a sitemap or URL inventory can be worth reviewing because the submitted URLs may no longer be the final destinations.

PKCapra intentionally does not follow redirects during the distribution check. This allows the report to show that the original URL returned a 3xx response.

For detailed redirect investigation, use the Redirect Checker.

4xx — Client Errors

4xx responses indicate that the request could not be fulfilled because of a client-side request or resource-access condition.

Common examples include:

• 400 Bad Request
• 401 Unauthorized
• 403 Forbidden
• 404 Not Found
• 405 Method Not Allowed
• 408 Request Timeout
• 410 Gone
• 429 Too Many Requests

Not every 4xx response represents the same problem.

A 404 may be appropriate when a resource genuinely does not exist.

A 403 may be intentional when access is restricted.

A 401 may be expected for protected resources.

A 429 can indicate rate limiting rather than a missing page.

The important step is to interpret the exact status code and the context in which it occurs.

For individual HTTP-response investigation, use the HTTP Status Checker.

5xx — Server Errors

5xx responses indicate that the server encountered a condition preventing it from successfully handling the request.

Common examples include:

• 500 Internal Server Error
• 501 Not Implemented
• 502 Bad Gateway
• 503 Service Unavailable
• 504 Gateway Timeout

A concentration of 5xx responses can require technical investigation because the problem may involve the origin server, application, database, reverse proxy, CDN, upstream service, or hosting environment.

The distribution report identifies the affected URLs, but diagnosing the underlying server problem requires additional investigation.

Exact Status Codes vs Status Classes

The analyzer reports both grouped classes and exact status codes.

This distinction is useful because 3xx, 4xx, and 5xx are broad categories.

For example:

Status	Class	Typical Meaning
200	2xx	OK
301	3xx	Moved Permanently
302	3xx	Found
404	4xx	Not Found
410	4xx	Gone
429	4xx	Too Many Requests
500	5xx	Internal Server Error
502	5xx	Bad Gateway
503	5xx	Service Unavailable
504	5xx	Gateway Timeout

The exact distribution is more useful than looking only at the broad class.

For example, ten 3xx responses could represent ten intentional permanent redirects, while a mixture of 301, 302, 307, and 308 responses may require a more detailed redirect review.

Sitemap Analysis

For site-wide analysis, an XML sitemap or sitemap index can provide a practical source of URLs.

Enter a public sitemap URL such as:

https://example.com/sitemap.xml

The analyzer retrieves the sitemap and extracts available <loc> URLs.

When a sitemap index is supplied, the analyzer can process referenced child sitemaps and collect URLs within the selected analysis limit.

You can choose:

• 25 URLs
• 50 URLs
• 100 URLs

The tool removes duplicate URLs before analysis.

This makes a sitemap a useful starting point for understanding the HTTP response distribution of URLs that a website explicitly presents in its sitemap structure.

For additional sitemap diagnostics, use the XML Sitemap Analyzer.

Analyze a Pasted URL List

You can also paste public HTTP or HTTPS URLs directly into the analyzer.

Use one URL per line.

Example:

https://example.com/
https://example.com/about/
https://example.com/products/
https://example.com/contact/

The analyzer validates the URLs and analyzes up to the selected maximum.

This is useful when you want to inspect a specific subset rather than an entire sitemap.

For example, you can test:

• Recently migrated URLs
• Important landing pages
• URLs from a redirect map
• Product URLs
• Category URLs
• Previously reported error URLs
• A sample of URLs from an external crawl

Why Redirects Are Not Followed

The analyzer intentionally checks the initial HTTP response without following redirects.

This is important for distribution analysis.

Suppose:

https://example.com/old-page

returns:

301 Moved Permanently

and redirects to:

https://example.com/new-page

If the analyzer followed the redirect, the final result could become 200 OK.

That would hide the fact that the original URL returned a 301.

For a distribution analyzer, preserving the initial response makes the report more useful because the URL remains classified as a 3xx response.

When you need to investigate where a redirect leads or whether multiple redirects occur, use the Redirect Checker.

Response Time

The URL-level report also records the approximate HTTP response time returned by the request.

This can help identify URLs that respond substantially more slowly than others in the same analysis.

Response time is diagnostic rather than a direct ranking metric.

A slower response can be influenced by:

• Hosting performance
• Application processing
• Database queries
• CDN behavior
• Network conditions
• Server load
• Cache state
• Upstream services

Use timing information as a clue for further investigation rather than treating a single measurement as a definitive performance assessment.

For broader page-performance investigation, use the Page Speed Analyzer.

Fetch Errors Are Different From HTTP Status Codes

A request can fail before a usable HTTP status code is received.

Examples include:

• Connection failures
• DNS problems
• Timeouts
• TLS or network failures
• Other transport-level problems

PKCapra reports these separately as Fetch Errors.

This distinction matters because a failed request is not the same thing as receiving a valid 404, 500, or other HTTP response.

For example:

404 Not Found

means the server returned an HTTP response.

A connection timeout may mean that no usable HTTP status was received at all.

Keeping those categories separate makes the distribution easier to interpret.

Understanding the Overall Result

The analyzer provides an overall distribution classification to help prioritize investigation.

Healthy Status Distribution

This indicates that the analyzed URL set did not trigger the tool’s higher-priority distribution thresholds.

It does not mean that every URL is perfect or that the site is fully optimized.

Review Status Distribution

This indicates that the analyzer detected conditions such as 4xx responses, a higher proportion of redirects, or fetch errors that deserve review.

A review result is a prompt for investigation rather than proof of a technical failure.

High-Priority Status Issues Detected

This classification is used when the analyzed set contains 5xx responses or when the calculated error rate reaches the tool’s high-priority threshold.

Investigate the affected URLs and determine whether the responses are intentional, temporary, or caused by a technical problem.

How to Use the Status Code Distribution Analyzer

Step 1: Choose Your URL Source

Enter either:

• An XML sitemap URL
• An XML sitemap index URL
• A list of public HTTP or HTTPS URLs

Step 2: Select the URL Limit

Choose 25, 50, or 100 URLs.

For a quick sample, use 25.

For a broader snapshot, use 100.

Step 3: Run the Analysis

Start the analysis.

PKCapra retrieves the available URLs and checks their initial HTTP responses without following redirects.

Step 4: Review the Distribution

Start with:

• Total URLs analyzed
• 2xx count
• 3xx count
• 4xx count
• 5xx count
• Fetch errors
• Success rate
• Error rate

Step 5: Inspect Exact Codes

Review the exact status-code table.

Look for unexpected patterns such as:

• Large numbers of 301 URLs
• Unexpected 302 responses
• 404 URLs inside an active URL inventory
• 403 responses on pages that should be publicly accessible
• 429 responses indicating rate limiting
• 500, 502, 503, or 504 responses

Step 6: Inspect Individual URLs

Use the URL-level results to identify exactly which URLs produced each response.

The results also show response time and redirect target information when available.

Common Status Code Distribution Problems

Too Many Redirected URLs

A large number of 3xx responses may indicate that the submitted URL source contains old URLs rather than final destinations.

If these URLs are in an XML sitemap, review whether the sitemap should contain the final URLs instead.

For redirect chains and destinations, use the Redirect Checker.

Unexpected 404 URLs

A 404 can be perfectly legitimate when a resource no longer exists.

However, 404 URLs appearing unexpectedly in a sitemap or important URL inventory deserve investigation.

Check:

• Internal links
• Sitemap generation
• Redirect rules
• CMS routing
• Removed content
• URL changes

For internal and external broken-link investigation, use the Broken Link Checker.

Unexpected 403 Responses

A 403 means access to the resource was refused.

Potential causes include:

• Authentication requirements
• Firewall rules
• Security plugins
• WAF configuration
• IP restrictions
• Bot protection
• Application permissions

Do not automatically assume that every 403 is an SEO error. Determine why access is restricted and whether the restriction is intentional.

Large Numbers of 5xx Responses

Multiple 5xx responses can indicate a broader server or application problem.

Check:

• Server logs
• Hosting availability
• Application errors
• Database availability
• Reverse proxy configuration
• CDN/origin communication
• Resource limits
• Recent deployments

If the problem is intermittent, repeat testing at different times and compare server-side logs with the HTTP results.

High Fetch Error Counts

Fetch errors should be investigated separately from HTTP errors.

A large fetch-error count can point toward:

• DNS resolution problems
• Connection failures
• Network instability
• TLS problems
• Timeouts
• Firewall or security controls

The analyzer cannot determine the complete cause of a transport failure from the status distribution alone.

Status Codes and Technical SEO

HTTP status codes are relevant to technical SEO because search engines need to retrieve resources and interpret server responses.

A status-code distribution provides useful technical evidence when investigating URL availability, redirects, missing resources, access restrictions, and server errors.

Status codes should always be evaluated together with the actual purpose of each URL.

A 404 for a genuinely removed page is different from a 404 accidentally returned for an important landing page.

A 301 used during a legitimate migration is different from a large number of unnecessary redirects.

A 503 during a short maintenance window is different from recurring 503 errors affecting important pages.

Status Distribution and Crawl Efficiency

HTTP response patterns can also be useful when investigating crawl efficiency.

Large URL inventories containing unnecessary redirects, errors, or unstable server responses may warrant broader crawl analysis.

The Status Code Distribution Analyzer provides a snapshot of the response classes. For broader crawl-efficiency investigation, use the Crawl Budget Analyzer.

Remember that status-code distribution alone does not measure Google’s crawl budget or predict how Google will crawl a website.

Status Distribution and Sitemaps

A sitemap is useful as an input source because it represents URLs that a website is explicitly presenting for discovery.

If an XML sitemap contains URLs that consistently return redirects or errors, review the sitemap generation and URL selection process.

Ideally, the URLs you submit should accurately represent the resources you want search engines to discover.

For additional sitemap analysis, use the XML Sitemap Analyzer.

Status Distribution and Broken Links

HTTP status analysis can help identify broken destinations, but a distribution report is not a replacement for a link crawl.

A 404 URL may be linked internally, referenced only in a sitemap, or not linked anywhere on the site.

To investigate actual internal and external broken links, use the Broken Link Checker.

A Practical Technical SEO Workflow

A useful workflow is:

1. Start with the site’s XML sitemap.
2. Analyze the HTTP response distribution.
3. Identify unexpected 3xx, 4xx, 5xx, and fetch-error groups.
4. Review the exact status codes.
5. Identify the affected URLs.
6. Check whether the response is intentional.
7. Investigate redirects separately.
8. Investigate broken links where appropriate.
9. Review crawl-efficiency implications for larger URL sets.
10. Recheck the affected URLs after technical changes.

This separates detection from diagnosis because the same status class can represent very different situations.

Important Limitations

The Status Code Distribution Analyzer is a diagnostic HTTP-response tool.

It does not reproduce Google’s complete crawling, rendering, indexing, ranking, or Search Console systems.

The analyzer checks the response received by the PKCapra server using its own HTTP request. The response may differ from what a specific crawler receives because of:

• User-agent handling
• Geographic routing
• CDN behavior
• WAF rules
• Rate limiting
• Authentication
• Bot protection
• Temporary server conditions
• Network conditions

The analyzer does not follow redirects during URL checks. This is intentional and allows the initial 3xx response to remain visible.

The tool analyzes up to 100 URLs per run. It is therefore useful for samples and focused URL sets rather than a full unlimited website crawl.

Privacy and Processing

The analyzer requires public HTTP or HTTPS URLs so that it can retrieve their HTTP responses.

URL analysis is performed through the PKCapra server-side checker and does not require a paid SEO API, proxy service, or external SEO subscription.

Do not submit URLs containing confidential information, authentication credentials, private tokens, or sensitive query parameters.

For security, private, reserved, local, and loopback targets are blocked.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a Status Code Distribution Analyzer do?

It analyzes a group of URLs and shows how their HTTP responses are distributed across 1xx, 2xx, 3xx, 4xx, and 5xx classes.

How many URLs can PKCapra analyze?

The current tool supports 25, 50, or 100 URLs per analysis.

Can I analyze an XML sitemap?

Yes. Enter a public XML sitemap URL. The analyzer extracts available URLs and checks them up to the selected limit.

Can I analyze a sitemap index?

Yes. The analyzer can process sitemap-index references and collect URLs from child sitemaps within the selected limit.

Can I paste URLs manually?

Yes. Paste public HTTP or HTTPS URLs one per line.

Does the analyzer follow redirects?

No. Redirects are intentionally not followed during the URL checks.

This means a URL returning 301 remains a 301 in the report rather than being converted into the status of the destination URL.

Why are redirects not followed?

Because the purpose of this tool is to measure the distribution of the initial HTTP responses. Following redirects would hide the original 3xx response.

Is a 404 always a problem?

No. A 404 can be the correct response when a requested resource genuinely does not exist.

The important question is whether the 404 is intentional and whether the URL is still referenced where it should not be.

Is a 301 bad for SEO?

No. A 301 can be a legitimate permanent redirect, particularly when content has moved. The analyzer reports the response so you can determine whether the redirect is expected.

What does a 5xx response mean?

A 5xx response indicates a server-side error condition. The exact cause depends on the status code and the hosting or application environment.

What is a fetch error?

A fetch error occurs when the analyzer cannot obtain a usable HTTP status response. Network failures, timeouts, DNS problems, and similar transport issues can produce this type of result.

Does a high 2xx percentage mean my website is healthy?

Not necessarily. A high 2xx percentage means that most analyzed URLs returned successful HTTP responses. It does not evaluate content quality, indexability, canonicalization, structured data, performance, or other SEO signals.

Does this tool measure Google’s crawl budget?

No. It reports HTTP response distribution for the URLs you submit. It does not measure or predict Google’s actual crawl behavior.

Why should I analyze my sitemap?

A sitemap provides a practical set of URLs that your website is explicitly presenting for discovery. Checking those URLs can reveal redirected, missing, restricted, or server-error responses within the submitted URL inventory.

What should I do after finding many 404 URLs?

Determine whether those URLs are intentionally removed, incorrectly linked, still present in the sitemap, or supposed to redirect to relevant replacements. Then investigate the affected URLs individually.

What should I do after finding many 5xx URLs?

Check server and application logs, hosting availability, database health, CDN/origin communication, WAF rules, and recent deployments. Repeat the test if the problem may be temporary.

Can this tool replace a full website crawler?

No. It is designed specifically for HTTP status distribution analysis of a limited URL set. A complete technical SEO crawl requires additional checks for links, canonicals, indexability, redirects, content, rendering, and other signals.