GLOSSARY
HTTP 410 Gone
HTTP 410 Gone is a status code that tells a browser or search engine a page has been deliberately and permanently removed, as distinct from 404 Not Found, which signals the page simply cannot currently be located, possibly by mistake.
Why it matters
Search engines treat the two differently: a 410 is a stronger, faster signal to actually remove a page from the index, since it communicates intent rather than ambiguity. For a page that was genuinely retired on purpose, a listing that sold, a promotion that ended, using 410 instead of 404 gets it de-indexed faster and cleaner. It also reduces unnecessary server and crawl load over time: search engines that receive a clear 410 stop re-requesting that URL far sooner than one returning an ambiguous 404 they keep periodically rechecking. It also communicates something a 404 cannot: genuine intent, which matters for any automated system, not just search engines, trying to distinguish a broken link from a page removed on purpose.
What goes wrong when it's handled badly
Most sites return a generic 404 for every kind of missing page, whether it moved, was deleted on purpose, or never existed, which leaves search engines re-crawling and re-checking pages that will never come back. A property listing correctly marked 410 the day a unit sells, rather than left as a 404 that periodically gets re-tested, is the difference this actually makes in practice. A concrete example is a discontinued product page left as a plain 404 for months, still appearing in search results with a broken preview, when a deliberate 410 the day it was discontinued would have removed it from the index cleanly. Building a deliberate process for marking content 410 the moment it is intentionally retired, rather than leaving that decision to whenever someone happens to notice the old page still exists, is what makes this work in practice.