How to handle deleted content

Send 404 or 410?

[sandyk20]

We have a huge forum more then 4 gb of data since we were going low on hardware resources we crunched deleted huge amount of waste content.

Shrinked database to 700 mb now.

What response code should be send to serps?
404 or 410 what is best.

Morever, where should i send guests too?
(from external links as well guests coming from serps)

Thanks.

[jimbeetle]

It basically doesn't make any difference at the moment as most SE bots treat 410s as 404s and not true 410s. I return a 410 for pages that I've killed for bots (if any) that do interpret it correctly and as a bit of future proofing if the day ever arrives when others decide to do the same.

Where do you send visitors? To your custom 410 error page that has a bit of info on it and maybe links to related pages.

[BillyS]

I use a 410, but Google doesn't distinguish between the two right now. Based on my experience, Y! does seem to recognize the 410.