HTTP response

When you visit a website, your browser sends a request to a server, and the server sends back an HTTP response. This response contains everything your browser needs to display the page: the HTML code, status information, and metadata about the content. In web scraping, the HTTP response is what you're actually collecting when you extract data from websites.

What an HTTP response contains

Every HTTP response has three main parts that work together to deliver content.

Status line and code

The status line tells you whether your request worked. You'll see a three-digit code that indicates success or failure. A 200 code means everything went fine. A 404 means the page doesn't exist. A 403 means you're blocked from accessing it. These codes matter in web scraping because they tell you whether you actually got the data you requested or if something went wrong.

Response headers

Headers are metadata about the response. They tell you things like what type of content you're getting (HTML, JSON, images), how long the content is, what server software is running, and whether the page has cookies. When you're scraping, headers can reveal rate limits, caching rules, or content encoding that affects how you process the data.

Response body

The body contains the actual content you want. For most web pages, this is HTML code with all the text, links, and structure of the page. When you scrape a website, this is where your target data lives. You parse this HTML to extract specific elements like product prices, article text, or table data.

How HTTP responses work in web scraping

Your scraper sends an HTTP request to a website. The server processes that request and generates a response. That response travels back to your scraper, which then reads the status code to confirm success, checks the headers for any important metadata, and parses the body to extract the data you need.

The whole process happens in milliseconds. Your scraper might send hundreds or thousands of these requests to collect data from multiple pages. Each one returns an HTTP response that you need to handle correctly.

Common status codes you'll encounter

You need to understand status codes because they tell you what action to take next. Here are the ones that matter most:

200 OK: Success. You got the data you requested.

301 or 302 Redirect: The content moved to a different URL. Your scraper should follow the redirect.

403 Forbidden: The server is blocking your access. This often means your scraper has been detected.

404 Not Found: The page doesn't exist. Maybe the URL changed or the content was deleted.

429 Too Many Requests: You're making requests too fast. You need to slow down or you'll get blocked.

500 Internal Server Error: Something broke on the server side. Not your fault, but you should retry later.

Problems with HTTP responses in web scraping

JavaScript-rendered content

Modern websites use JavaScript frameworks that load content after the initial page loads. When your scraper requests these pages, the HTTP response contains mostly empty HTML. The actual data loads later through JavaScript and additional API calls. This is the biggest challenge in modern web scraping because traditional HTTP requests can't execute JavaScript.

Empty or incomplete responses

Sometimes the response body doesn't contain what you expect. The server might return a partial page, an error page styled to look normal, or content that requires authentication. You need to verify that the response actually contains your target data before trying to parse it.

Blocked requests

Websites use various methods to block scrapers. They might check your IP address, user agent string, or request patterns. When they detect automated access, they return responses with 403 status codes or redirect you to CAPTCHA pages. The HTTP response arrives, but it doesn't contain the data you want.

Network timeouts

Sometimes servers take too long to respond, or network issues interrupt the connection. Your scraper needs to handle these timeout errors gracefully, retry the request, or move on to the next URL.

How Browse AI handles HTTP responses

Browse AI manages all the complexity of HTTP responses for you. The platform automatically handles JavaScript rendering, so you get fully loaded pages even from modern websites. It manages status codes, follows redirects, and retries failed requests without you writing any code.

When websites block standard requests, Browse AI rotates through different browser profiles and IP addresses to get clean responses. You don't need to worry about parsing responses or handling errors manually. The platform delivers structured data extracted from successful HTTP responses, ready to use in spreadsheets or databases. Learn more at Browse AI.