HTTP 410 Gone

When removing a resource, use 410 Gone

[pageoneresults]

4.2: HTTP 410 Gone

This does not mean the web does not allow for documents to be removed or deprecated. Content managers should avoid, when possible, simply removing resources, and should consider instead the correct standard procedure, which is to use the 410 gone status code ([RFC2616] section 10.4.11).

Whereas the 404 Not found status code only means that the server is unable to find the resource, the 410 gone status code means that the resource is intentionally unavailable. For the sake of semantics and caching (a 410 gone is cacheable unless indicated otherwise).

How many of you have actually gone as far as micro-managing your 404s vs 410s?

Guideline 4: "Cool URIs don't change", but cool content does [w3.org]

[Span]

I don't remove files very often, but always make sure a 410 is returned.

[TheDoctor]

always make sure a 410 is returned

How would I do this?

[Romeo]

How would I do this?

There is a RewriteRule flag in .htaccess returning a 410 status: [G] = "gone"

RewriteRule ^somepage.html$ - [G,L]

Regards,
R.

[Span]

How would I do this

Redirect and RedirectMatch can also be used:

Redirect 410 /file.html
Redirect 410 /folder/

RedirectMatch 410 /file.html
RedirectMatch 410 /folder/

RedirectMatch allows regular expressions:
RedirectMatch gone ^/folder/subfolder/(0[6-9]¦1[0-9]¦2[0-8])\.html

[jollymcfats]

I return 410's for content that is really gone. I've seen absolutely zero side effects or changes in search engine behavior because of this. I imagine they'll continue to pound on the 410 URIs until all the inbound links are gone.