HEAD request
A request for the headers that a corresponding GET would return, without transferring response content.
What HEAD request does not show
It cannot verify body text, markup, challenge pages, or payload parity.
Related terms in HTTP, edge and rendering
The delivery layer between an origin and a client: proxies, caches, redirects, status codes and the headers that decide what a crawler actually received.
Content-Language header · HTTP/3 · Alt-Svc · HTTPS DNS record · Link header · content negotiation · Markdown negotiation · Retry-After · Server-Timing · WWW-Authenticate · Allow header · Content-Digest · Origin server · Reverse proxy · CDN · Edge node · WAF · Bot score · TLS handshake · DNS resolution · DNS timeout · Connection timeout · Read timeout · Redirect chain · Redirect loop · 301 redirect · 302 redirect · 307 redirect · 308 redirect · 304 response · 404 response · 410 response · 429 response · 500 response · 502 response · 503 response · 504 response · GET request · Content type · MIME sniffing · Content encoding · Compression · Brotli · ETag · Last-Modified · If-None-Match · Cache hit · Cache miss · Cache key · Vary header · Stale response · Stale-while-revalidate · Edge redirect · Origin bypass · Response parity · Header parity · hreflang · canonical URL · HSTS · HSTS preload list · Content-Security-Policy · CSP nonce · edge cache · cache split · cache-buster · Cache-Control · Age header · render-blocking resource · payload text share · lazy loading · 404 and 410 status codes
Questions about HEAD request
What is HEAD request?
A request for the headers that a corresponding GET would return, without transferring response content.
What does HEAD request not show or guarantee?
A request for the headers that a corresponding GET would return, without transferring response content. It cannot verify body text, markup, challenge pages, or payload parity.
Which area of the glossary does HEAD request belong to?
HTTP, edge and rendering: The delivery layer between an origin and a client: proxies, caches, redirects, status codes and the headers that decide what a crawler actually received.
← 504 response · GET request →
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