by sayers
1 replies
  • SEO
  • |
If you are shutting down a subdomain on your website, say an archive, would you favour the use of 410 or 404 status codes for all the URLs?

I would have initially said 410, as such a drastic hike in 404 errors I thought could leave negative signals to Google in terms of site quality. Also, we've seen 404 pages take an age to drop out of the Google index, even when not linked from the site. However, I discussed with a trainer at a recent workshop and he thought 404 would be the best way to go.

I would like to avoid 301 redirects as the quality of the archive is poor, and has little authority.

Any thoughts?
#404 #410
  • Profile picture of the author Anky
    If a page is gone and you think it’s temporary, go ahead and use a 404. If the page is gone and you know no other page that should substitute for it, you don’t have anywhere else that you should point to, and you know that that page is going to be gone never come back, then go ahead and serve a 410.

    To make the page available for users and you do not want bad user experience you should redirect those pages to relevant category or blog post or home page.
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