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"In October, we reported that Google treats a 410 stronger than a 404 status code.  I am not sure exactly when Google made the 410 status code that important, but I believe it was sometime in October.A new thread surfaced in Google Webmaster Help where it was suggested by a Googler to use the 410, once again.  Googler, Jonathan Simon said:Last year we started started treating 410 Gone responses as being a stronger signal for indicating when a page no longer exists. So for the situation you describe (where 301 redirects aren't practical) returning a 410 response is the way to go.It seems to me that when Googlebot discovers a 410, it will communicate to Google to not index that page for a really long time.  I believe Google will check pages they know to be 404ed every now and then.  Maybe a 410 will tell Googlebot to never check back or check back extremely rarely?Just keep in mind that the 410 is much stronger than a 404 response - it may come in handy in your future SEO projects.Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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