What Is a 410 Gone Status Code?
A 410 Gone is an HTTP status code that tells browsers and search engines a page has been permanently and intentionally removed, with no replacement available.
410 vs 404
A 404 Not Found simply means the requested URL doesn’t currently resolve — it might be a typo, a temporary issue, or genuinely missing content, and search engines will typically keep checking it periodically. A 410 is more explicit: it says the page is gone on purpose and isn’t coming back, which tends to get it dropped from the index faster than a 404 would.
When to Use It
Use a 410 when you’ve deliberately removed content with no equivalent replacement — a discontinued product with no substitute, an outdated page you want fully removed from search rather than redirected. If there’s a relevant replacement page, a 301 redirect is almost always the better choice, since it preserves any link equity the old page had built up.
