Can you redirect from a 410 server error? I see many 410s that should be directed to an existing page.

[sxsoule]

We have 150,000 410 server errors. Many of them should be redirected to an existing url. This is a result of a complete website redesign, including new navigation and new web platform. I believe IT may have inadvertently marked many 404s as 410s. Can I fix this or is a 410 error permanent?

Thank you for your help.

[TakeshiYoung]

Is there a common pattern to be found in the URLs that are generating the 410 errors? Then it should be possible to 301 redirect those URLs via your .htaccess file. Also, Google is crawling those URLs because links to them exist somewhere. If you can remove the links to the pages, it should stop them from getting crawled.

[sxsoule]

Thank you for your help.

I am trying to get the 410s that are listed in Google Webmaster Tools (Page Not Found server errors) redirected to an actual existing page. What I think happened is that soft 404s were improperly designated by IT as 410s. Almost all of them can be directed to an actual webpage. I would hate to lose that traffic.

There really isn't a common pattern.

This was as a result of implementation of a new design / layout of a website and pages that were not not properly redirected. Now they come in as soft 404 errors.

Again, thank you for your help.

[TakeshiYoung]

There must be some kind of logic to your old URLs and your new ones? If you post examples, I can help with the redirect code.

Also, are these pages being linked to from anywhere? If you click on the errors in GWT, it should show you where these pages are being linked from. If the links to these pages no longer exist, they will drop off by themselves eventually.

[sxsoule]

I am just trying to figure out if they can be redirected. From what I have read, labeling something a 410 error is the end. You can't go back and change it to a redirect to a webpage. Is that correct or can we redirect them? I have software engineers that can do the redirects. I just want to make sure that I'm asking them to do something that is possible.

Again, thank you for your help.

[TakeshiYoung]

The 410 error isn't generated until the page is loaded. The code in htaccess will redirect the crawler to the new page before it has a chance to load the old one.

It's just like if you have a page that doesn't exist, that generates a 404 error. By adding a redirect in the htaccess file, you can point crawlers & visitors to a new URL and not generate a 404.

[sxsoule]

Oh! Thanks! I will pass that on. As you probably guessed, I am not as well versed in server errors as I would like to be. I am more of an SEO Analyst / Marketing person. I don't actually make changes at the server level. I am learning a lot from the problems that arose out of a website redesign. I am new and trying to get everything fixed.

Again, thank you for your help.