What Is 410 Gone?

Why It Matters

The 410 status code is a stronger signal than 404. While a 404 says “I can’t find this,” a 410 says “this is deliberately gone forever.” Search engines respect this difference — a 410 gets removed from search results faster.

For domain forwarding, 410 is rarely what you want. When you move a domain, you want to redirect traffic, not tell search engines the content is gone. A 301 redirect preserves your SEO; a 410 destroys it.

How It Works

HTTP/1.1 410 Gone
Content-Type: text/html

<h1>This page has been permanently removed.</h1>

No Location header is included — there’s nowhere to redirect to. The content is gone.

410 vs 404 vs 301

Code	Meaning	SEO Impact	Use Case
301	Moved permanently	Passes link equity	Domain moves, URL changes
404	Not found	Slow removal from index	Broken links, typos
410	Gone permanently	Fast removal from index	Intentional content deletion

When to Use 410

• You’ve taken down a product page and don’t want it in search results
• A legal requirement forces content removal
• You’re cleaning up duplicate or thin content from your site
• You’ve explicitly decided content should never appear again

When NOT to Use 410

• Domain migrations — use a 301 redirect instead
• Temporary downtime — use 503 Service Unavailable
• URL structure changes — use path forwarding with 301 redirects