What does the 410 status code mean?

The 410 is an HTTP status code with which you can communicate to Google that a page has been permanently and deliberately removed.

As an extension to the 404

The 410 is relatively new and is an improvement on the 404. The 404 indicates that the page no longer exists, but this can also occur in the event of an error after which it is restored. With the 410 you indicate to Google that this page has been deliberately removed and that it can be removed from indexation. This will also speed up this process.

Other known status codes

In addition to the 410, you have more http status codes. These are the most famous:

• 301 – Final reference to another page
• 302 – Temporary reference to another page
• 404 – Page does not exist (anymore)
• 500 – ‘Internal server error’