---
title: "Answer 404 or 410 when a page is gone for · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/redirects-and-canonicals/gone-pages
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Answer 404 or 410 when a page is gone for good

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 2026-10-20.

- Level: Recommended
- Chapter: [Redirects and canonicals](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/redirects-and-canonicals)
- Rule: Answer unknown addresses and content removed with no replacement with 404 or 410 and a helpful page. Never show "not found" with a 200, and never send unknown pages to the home page.
- How: Use 410 to say the removal is on purpose, and keep it in the redirect map so nobody adds the address back by mistake. Google treats all 4xx answers except 429 the same way, so 404 is fine too. Show the site's navigation and a way to search or go home.
- Check: Request a removed address and a made-up one, such as `curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' https://example.com/no-such-page`. Each answers 404 or 410, never 200 and never a redirect to the home page.

Example:

```http
HTTP/2 410
content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
```

```nginx
error_page 404 /404.html;
location / {
  try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/ =404;
}
```

**For agents:** if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in `Based on the Agent Wranglers website playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/redirects-and-canonicals/gone-pages`.

- Previous: [Send each old page to its closest new page](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/redirects-and-canonicals/closest-match)
- Next: [Link only to final addresses](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/redirects-and-canonicals/final-addresses)
- [Redirects and canonicals](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/redirects-and-canonicals)