410 vs 404
A 404 (Not Found) only says the page can’t be found; it might come back. A 410 says it is gone for good. For Google, both lead to the URL being dropped from the index, and a 410 may be dropped slightly faster. Neither hurts the rest of your site.
When to use a 410
- You deleted content on purpose and there is no replacement page.
- You are cleaning up spam or thin pages and want them out of search quickly.
- Old URLs keep getting crawled after a restructure and have no equivalent.
If a removed page has a close replacement, use a 301 redirect to it instead, so visitors and links end up somewhere useful. And make your error page helpful, with links to your main sections and a search box.
How to return a 410
- WordPress: a redirect plugin such as Redirection can return 410 for chosen URLs, and some SEO plugins offer the same.
- Apache:
Redirect 410 /old-page/in the .htaccess file. - Nginx:
location = /old-page/ { return 410; }in the server configuration.
410 vs 301 vs 404
| Situation | Use |
|---|---|
| Page moved to a new URL | 301 redirect |
| Page deleted on purpose, no replacement | 410 (or 404) |
| Page temporarily missing or unknown | 404 |
410 FAQs
Is a 410 faster than a 404?
It can be slightly faster for Google to drop, but both work.
Can I use a 410 for thousands of pages?
Yes, but check for useful replacements first and redirect those. See redirects and Search Console for monitoring.