410 Status Code

What is 410 Status Code?

The 410 Status Code is an HTTP response status code indicating that the resource requested by the client has been permanently deleted, and that the client should not expect an alternative redirection or forwarding address. The 410 Gone code may appear like the 404 Not Found code that we looked at few months ago, but the two codes serve a distinctly different purpose. A 404 code indicates that the requested resource is not currently available, but it could be available in future requests. Conversely, a 410 code is an explicit indication that the requested resource used to exist, but it has since been permanently removed and will not be available in the future. Thus, a 404 status code indicates that the user agent (browser) can repeat requests to the same resource URI, while a 410 tells the user agent not to repeat requests to that same resource.

A 410 is more permanent than a 404; it means that the page is gone. The page is no longer available from the server and no forwarding address has been set up. Any links you have on your site that are pointing to a 410 page are sending bots and visitors to a dead resource, so if you see them, remove any references or links to them from your content.

4xx status codes mean that there was probably an error in the request, which prevented the server from being able to process it. Specifically, a 410 status code means “gone.”

In Google’s terms, “the server returns this response when the requested resource has been permanently removed. It is similar to a 404 (Not found) code but is sometimes used in the place of a 404 for resources that used to exist but no longer do.”

410 Status Code vs. 404 Status Code

410 Status Code aren’t quite the same as 404 Status Code, which indicate the page is “not found.” In some cases, 410 status codes are better than 404 status codes because they present more information. By using a temporary custom 410 page, you give the search engine robots the more accurate status and knowledge that the old link should be removed from their crawl index—which can prevent unnecessary traffic.