301 vs 410

[jkmjkmjkm]

I have some syndicated content from a plugin that creates pages and as the expire they are removed. Should I 301 or 410 these pages that are not coming back?

I have heard people can get penalized for 301 redirecting pages that should really be a 404 or 410.

Does the fact that is is syndicated content from a plugin that I am editing change anything?

[chiragparekh]

I have some syndicated content from a plugin that creates pages and as the expire they are removed. Should I 301 or 410 these pages that are not coming back?

I have heard people can get penalized for 301 redirecting pages that should really be a 404 or 410.

Does the fact that is is syndicated content from a plugin that I am editing change anything?

have nicely designed custom 404 page if the dead pages are larger in amount. This is best and easiest way to handle dead pages. If your dead pages are having decent pagerank and you can use 301 redirect to avail linkjuice of these pages.

I haven't heard any penalty for 301 redirection. may be learn new thing if it is true.

[Darrin Ward]

Although 410 is technically the right way to go about this, the 404 is more broadly supported by search engines (and understood by users). Also, Google recently announced that 410 (Gone) and 404 (Not Found) errors are now treated the same by them... so go with 404s.

As chiragparekh said, do a really nice error page - briefly mention that this specific page was not found but look we've got tons of other cool stuff.

And now for the real questions... Why is the content being removed? I'm generally a fan of never removing content.