Re: Googlebots & http 503 response with retry-after

John A. wrote:

Hello!

A couple months back I reconfigured our server to give a 503 error and
a retry-after time of 20 minutes later instead of a 404 if we were in
the process of updating our site. (The update process involves
deleting & regenerating some and I'd rather not tell google they're
just not there anymore.)

Does anyone know for certain if the googlebot(s) understand 503s and
retry-after?

Thanks!

If the web pages no longer exist the web pages no longer exist. You are
way better off just letting Google find that out by itself.

Now, if you trying to transfer the importance associated with one web
page to another then that's an entirely different matter altogether.
Is that what you want to do?

--
Fred
http://www.rezultz-web-site-promotion.com/
search engine optimization ethics and basics