Oct 30, 2026

Website Down for Maintenance? The Status Codes That Protect Your Google Rankings

"Our developers need to take the site offline to patch PHP. Will we lose our organic rankings?" It's the question we've heard most from marketing teams since PHP released emergency fixes on 21 October. The short answer is no, as long as your server tells Google exactly what's going on.

Most of the advice out there stops at "use a 503". That covers an hour of planned maintenance. It doesn't cover the spam pages left behind after a hack, the microsite nobody remembered, or the platform migration that often follows a scare like PHP2Shell. This guide does.

Why status codes matter when your site goes offline

Every time Google visits a page, your server answers with a three-digit status code before any content loads. That code is the server's message to Google: everything's fine, come back later, this page has moved, or this page is gone.

So when a site goes offline, the status code decides whether Google treats it as a short pause or a sign that your content has disappeared. If you're taking sites down for PHP updates right now, our PHP2Shell guide explains why patching can't wait. This post covers how to do it without damaging your search visibility.

Match the status code to the downtime

Not all downtime is the same, so not every situation calls for a 503. Start with what's actually happening to your site.

Situation	Status code	How long	Avoid
Planned maintenance or upgrade	503 + Retry-After	A few hours	A 200 "back soon" page
Emergency security patch	503 + Retry-After	As short as possible	Timeouts or blank pages
One section offline (e.g. a booking tool)	503 on that section only	Hours	Taking the whole site down
Server overloaded by traffic	503 or 429	Minutes to hours	Leaving 500 errors running
Page removed for good	410	Permanent	Redirecting it to the homepage
Spam URLs left behind by a hack	410	Permanent	Leaving them live or returning 200
Content moved to a new URL or platform	301	Permanent	Temporary 302s or no redirect at all

503 and Retry-After for planned and emergency downtime

A 503 means "service unavailable, try again later". Google keeps your pages in its index and slows its crawling until the site returns.

Add a Retry-After header to say when that will be, either in seconds or as a date and time. It's a hint rather than a promise, but it helps Google plan its next visit.

The key limit is time. Google's guidance warns against serving 503s for longer than one to two days. After that, pages can start dropping out of the index. Most PHP upgrades take minutes to a few hours, so plan to be back well inside that window.

410 vs 404 when cleaning up after a hack

If attackers got in before you patched, they may have created thousands of spam pages on your domain. Deleting them isn't enough. Those URLs need to tell Google they're gone.

Both 404 and 410 lead to removal, but a 410 says the page was removed on purpose and won't return. In practice, Google tends to drop 410 pages a little faster, which matters when spam is sitting in search results under your brand. For the worst offenders, use the Removals tool in Search Console as well.

301s when downtime turns into a migration

For some organisations, a security scare is the point where they decide to move platform. When that happens, every old URL that has a new home needs a permanent 301 redirect to it.

This is where most migration ranking losses come from: missing redirects, chains of redirects, or everything pointing to the homepage. Map old URLs to new ones page by page before launch day, not after.

The codes that quietly cost you rankings

These are the mistakes we see most often when sites go offline in a hurry. None of them look like a problem on the day. The damage shows up in Search Console a week or two later.

A 200 "under maintenance" page. Google sees a working page and may index your maintenance message across hundreds of URLs, or treat them all as soft 404s.

Timeouts and connection resets. If the server simply stops answering, Google treats it like a server error and reduces how often it crawls.

500 errors left running. A brief 500 is fine. Days of them and Google starts removing pages.

Redirecting everything to the homepage. Google usually treats this as a soft 404, so the original pages lose their rankings anyway.

A 503 on robots.txt. If Google can't fetch your robots.txt file, it may stop crawling the whole site. Keep it returning a normal 200.

Not sure what your sites return when they go down? Request a free check.

After you're back online: a two-week recovery check

Going back online isn't the end of the job. Google needs time to recrawl, and problems often only surface days later. Set a reminder to check these for at least two weeks.

What to watch in Search Console

Crawl Stats: look for a spike in server errors (5xx) during and after the downtime, then check it drops back to normal.
Page Indexing: watch for new soft 404s, "server error" pages, or a sudden drop in indexed pages.
Security Issues and Manual Actions: confirm both are clear, especially if there's any chance the site was compromised.
Performance: compare clicks and impressions for your top pages against the week before.
If indexed pages suddenly jump, check for URLs you don't recognise. That's often the first sign of injected spam.

Downtime is a process, not a one-off

PHP2Shell won't be the last emergency patch. The next CMS upgrade, hosting move or security fix will need the same planning, and the organisations that come through with their rankings intact are the ones who had it ready in advance.

We can help you

Keep your platform, hand over the care. ArekiboCare covers hosting, monitoring, security, patching and planned downtime under one fixed-price SLA, delivered 24/7/365.

Book a 30-minute chator call us on +353 1 905 2030.

Website Downtime and SEO: Frequently Asked Questions

1. Which status code should I use when my website is down for maintenance?

Use a 503 (Service Unavailable) with a Retry-After header. It tells Google the downtime is temporary, so your pages stay indexed. Serve it from your CDN, load balancer or hosting layer rather than the CMS itself, and keep robots.txt returning a normal 200.

2. How long can a website return a 503 before it affects SEO?

Google advises against serving 503s for more than one to two days. Beyond that, pages may start dropping from the index. Most maintenance and patching takes a few hours, so aim to be back online well within that window.

3. Should I use a 404 or a 410 for pages I've deleted?

Use a 410 for pages you've removed on purpose, including spam pages created during a hack. A 404 is fine for pages that are simply missing. If the content has moved to a new address, use a 301 redirect instead.