Will 404 Not Found error always occur when I change the inventory and delete products/web pages?
1 Recommended AnswerAny help and advice is greatly appreciated.
Thank you
verdecove

In theory a 404 error should persist for ever unless you do something about it. RFC 2616 Section 10 applies:
http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html
"The server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. No indication is given of whether the condition is temporary or permanent. The 410 (Gone) status code SHOULD be used if the server knows, through some internally configurable mechanism, that an old resource is permanently unavailable and has no forwarding address. This status code is commonly used when the server does not wish to reveal exactly why the request has been refused, or when no other response is applicable."
So when Google keeps coming back for a deleted URL it is acting completely in conformity with the RFC. What happens is that the frequency of attempts falls off and Google stops reporting the 404 in Webmaster Tools - but it is entirely entitled (and required by the RFC) to return and try the URL again - I have one I deleted six years ago and leave as a test. Google checks for it every few months.
If at all possible, put up a 301 to channel the hit to a useful (related) alternative page. Or serve a 410 (or use the URL removal tool) to tell Google the page really has gone. If you do neither, you'll see the 404s every now and then but they do no harm - just ignore them.


In theory a 404 error should persist for ever unless you do something about it. RFC 2616 Section 10 applies:
http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html
"The server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. No indication is given of whether the condition is temporary or permanent. The 410 (Gone) status code SHOULD be used if the server knows, through some internally configurable mechanism, that an old resource is permanently unavailable and has no forwarding address. This status code is commonly used when the server does not wish to reveal exactly why the request has been refused, or when no other response is applicable."
So when Google keeps coming back for a deleted URL it is acting completely in conformity with the RFC. What happens is that the frequency of attempts falls off and Google stops reporting the 404 in Webmaster Tools - but it is entirely entitled (and required by the RFC) to return and try the URL again - I have one I deleted six years ago and leave as a test. Google checks for it every few months.
If at all possible, put up a 301 to channel the hit to a useful (related) alternative page. Or serve a 410 (or use the URL removal tool) to tell Google the page really has gone. If you do neither, you'll see the 404s every now and then but they do no harm - just ignore them.

I dont think google makes much distinction between 410 and 404 pages, unless there is updated information ?
...Google treats a 404 HTTP status code (page not found, but it may reappear) and a 410 HTTP status code (page not found, and it’s gone forever) in the same way....
from
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/sitemaps-interview/
And some more 404 information here -
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93641
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/08/make-your-404-pages-more-useful.html

Yeah. That was three and a half years ago and clearly documented non-compliant behaviour. Now TRY IT - get a couple of pages indexed, delete both and serve a 410 for just one of them and watch what happens.

>> Now TRY IT - get a couple of pages indexed
404 (Not found)
The server can't find the requested page. For instance, the server often returns this code if the request is for a page that doesn't exist on the server.
410 (Gone)

Thank you for a definite response on this query.
I also thought it was not worth rewriting a server (at possible extra cost) to produce 410 responses.
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