303 See Other meaning in English

303 See Other

Status

303 See Other

What is a 303 See Other HTTP Response?

A 303 See Other HTTP response status code is used as a way to redirect users to new URI for a resource, as indicated in a header response, intended to provide an indirect response to the original request.

One example situation where you may see a 303 response is when a Signed Exchange (SGX) is provided to the user via a prefetch cache.

Example 303 Response

The below is an example of a 303 HTTP response code in action.

In the example, a Chrome for Android user agent clicks through from Google search to visit CDNJS.com, which uses SGX.

Example 303 Response
Example 303 Response whilst clicking through to CDNJS.com from Google search with Chrome for Android user agent enabled
Example 303 Response header

Does a 303 status affect SEO?

No, search engine bots should treat a 303 just like a 301 or similar redirect.

Specification

The 303 (See Other) status code indicates that the server is redirecting the user agent to a different resource, as indicated by a URI in the Location header field, which is intended to provide an indirect response to the original request. A user agent can perform a retrieval request targeting that URI (a GET or HEAD request if using HTTP), which might also be redirected, and present the eventual result as an answer to the original request. Note that the new URI in the Location header field is not considered equivalent to the effective request URI.

This status code is applicable to any HTTP method. It is primarily used to allow the output of a POST action to redirect the user agent to a selected resource, since doing so provides the information corresponding to the POST response in a form that can be separately identified, bookmarked, and cached, independent of the original request.

A 303 response to a GET request indicates that the origin server does not have a representation of the target resource that can be transferred by the server over HTTP. However, the Location field value refers to a resource that is descriptive of the target resource, such that making a retrieval request on that other resource might result in a representation that is useful to recipients without implying that it represents the original target resource. Note that answers to the questions of what can be represented, what representations are adequate, and what might be a useful description are outside the scope of HTTP.

Except for responses to a HEAD request, the representation of a 303 response ought to contain a short hypertext note with a hyperlink to the same URI reference provided in the Location header field.

RFC

RFC 7231 6.4.4

Citation URL

https://www.searchcandy.uk/seo/seo-glossary/http-303/

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