HTTP Header Checker
Inspect HTTP response headers for any URL. Check security headers, caching configuration, and SEO directives like X-Robots-Tag.
This tool sends a HEAD request to check response headers. Rate limited to 10 requests per minute.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are HTTP response headers?+
HTTP response headers are metadata sent by a web server along with the page content. They contain instructions for the browser about caching, security, content type, and more. Some headers like X-Robots-Tag directly affect how search engines treat your pages.
What is the X-Robots-Tag header?+
X-Robots-Tag is an HTTP header that works like the robots meta tag but at the server level. It can tell search engines to noindex, nofollow, or restrict a page. It's especially useful for non-HTML resources like PDFs that can't have meta tags.
Which security headers should my site have?+
At minimum: Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS), X-Content-Type-Options, and Content-Security-Policy. Other recommended headers include X-Frame-Options, Referrer-Policy, and Permissions-Policy. Missing security headers can affect your site's trust signals.
How do caching headers affect SEO?+
Proper caching headers (Cache-Control, ETag, Last-Modified) improve page speed, which is a Google ranking factor. They reduce server load and improve Core Web Vitals scores. Google recommends leveraging browser caching for better performance.
Why does this tool use HEAD requests?+
HEAD requests retrieve only the headers without downloading the page body. This is faster, uses minimal bandwidth, and is sufficient for header analysis. It's the same method search engine crawlers often use for initial checks.