HTTP 410 Gone — Permanently Removed Resources & SEO Implications

When to Return 410

Use 410 for permanently deleted resources where you want to signal to clients and search engines that the URL will never return content. For most resource deletions in APIs, 404 is simpler and equally correct — 410 is most valuable for SEO (removing indexed pages).

Common Causes

• Permanently deleted blog post or product page
• Deprecated API endpoint that will not be replaced
• User account that has been permanently deleted

HTTP Response Example

HTTP/1.1 410 Gone
Content-Type: application/json

{"error": "Gone", "message": "This resource has been permanently removed"}

Code Examples

const DELETED_SLUGS = new Set(['old-post-1', 'deprecated-product'])

app.get('/blog/:slug', async (req, res) => {
  if (DELETED_SLUGS.has(req.params.slug)) {
    return res.status(410).json({ error: 'Gone', message: 'This post has been permanently removed' })
  }
  const post = await db.posts.findBySlug(req.params.slug)
  if (!post) return res.sendStatus(404)
  res.json(post)
})

// app/blog/[slug]/page.tsx
import { notFound } from 'next/navigation'

const DELETED = ['old-post']

export default async function BlogPost({ params }) {
  const { slug } = await params
  if (DELETED.includes(slug)) {
    return new Response(null, { status: 410 }) // or render a "removed" page
  }
  const post = await db.posts.findBySlug(slug)
  if (!post) notFound()
  return <Post data={post} />
}

Related Status Codes