In this article I am focusing on Wordpress, but you'll see that of these tips could be reused for other platforms.
Context about the 410
Let's start with some context about the 410 and after that I will give you some examples on how to do this directly in Wordpress.
What's 410?
410 is an HTTP answer, if you aren't familiar with it let's simplify by saying: "if a page is display it's a 200 & if a page is not displaying it's a 404".
I definitely took shortcuts here & on purpose!
What does it stands for?
410 stands for Gone, the main goal of this HTTP answer is to remove an URL from your website (and inform both browser & search engine that you did that).
In SEO it is mainly used for removing URL from the index, saying to Google -- and its bots -- this longer is no longer available; all of this without needed to redirect it.
How to do a 410 on Wordpress?
410 on your .htaccess file
To use & push a 410 on your website from the .htaccess file, you will have add a row in your file and do Redirect + either Gone or 410 + your URL (/url-of-your-website)
Redirect gone /url-of-your-website
Or you can use 410 directly instead of Gone
Redirect 410 /url-of-your-website
You can definitely do that for a lot of URLs, you will have to duplicate the example above and change the /url-of-your-website
410 thanks to the Redirect plugin
This Redirect plugin is one of the most used in Wordpress to deal with different redirect codes; but did you know you could also used it for 4xx codes as 404 and 410. The later will be the center of our interest in this paragraph.
For that, you will have to go to Tools > Redirection; then add a Source URL, plus click on wheel, and then go into Error (404) from the menu When matched. From there you can select 410 - Gone from the with HTTP code menu.
It's tricky because you think you will use a 404, so an error, but in fact it will be a 410, to remove the URL from the Index
FYI: This plugin is using the REST API from Wordpress
410 thanks to the Rank Math plugin
It will be as easy as adding a 410 thanks to Redirection: Go into Rank Math, and then Redirections, from there you can select Add New, and under Maintenance Code click on the 410 Content Deleted after adding the /url-of-your-website you would like to remove from the index.
