GlossarySEO
What does a 410 Gone status mean?
Also called: 410 status code, HTTP 410, 404 vs 410
Definition
410 Gone is an HTTP status that says a URL was removed on purpose and won't come back. For Google Search it works almost exactly like a 404: the URL is dropped from the index.
410 Gone, explained
The HTTP spec separates 404 Not Found (nothing here, reason unknown) from 410 Gone (it was here, it's been removed permanently). The difference is intent. A 410 is you telling clients not to bother asking again.
In Google's documentation the two are grouped together. For both 404 and 410, the indexing pipeline removes the URL from the index if it was previously indexed, and new 404 or 410 URLs aren't processed. Google's guidance treats all 4xx codes other than 429 the same way for indexing. So a 410 is not a magic fast-removal switch. The practical difference between the two is small, and choosing one over the other is a matter of clarity rather than rankings.
Where a 410 is handy: you delete a large batch of URLs on purpose, like expired listings, spam pages that were injected by a hack, or a discontinued section, and you want your logs and monitoring to show that the removal was deliberate. Some teams use 410 for intentional removals and 404 for everything else, which makes crawl reports easier to read.
Never use 410 for pages that moved. Those need a 301 to the new URL so links and rankings carry over. And whichever code you pick, remove the URLs from your sitemap and internal links, or Google will keep being told to fetch pages you've deliberately deleted.
Why it matters for founders
When you clean up thin or outdated pages, you need them out of the index. Either 404 or 410 does that. Knowing they're equivalent in Google saves you from rewriting server rules for no benefit.
Example
You shut down a set of 500 auto-generated tag pages. You return 410 for the /tag/ path so the removal is clear in logs, remove them from the sitemap, and delete internal links to them.
Common mistakes
- Using 410 on pages that moved instead of redirecting them.
- Expecting 410 to remove URLs faster than 404 in Google.
- Returning 410 for a whole section by accident with a broad server rule.
- Keeping removed URLs in the sitemap.
Sources
Checked
Related terms
- 404 errorA 404 error is the HTTP status a server returns when a requested URL doesn't exist. Search engines drop 404 URLs from their index, and a 404 on a deleted page is normal, not a penalty.
- HTTP status codeAn HTTP status code is the three-digit number a server sends back with every response, like
200,301,404or503. It tells browsers and crawlers whether the request worked, moved, failed or should be retried. - Thin contentThin content is a page with little or no original value for the reader: boilerplate, near-empty templates, copied text or pages that exist only to rank. Google often won't index it.
- XML sitemapAn XML sitemap is a file that lists the URLs you want search engines to crawl and index, optionally with the date each one last changed. It helps discovery; it doesn't guarantee indexing.