Hi Dave,
301 means that the page has been moved permanently. I suspect the search engines take specific actions upon seeing a 301 for a short period of time.
A 410 - means that the page is gone, and gone forever. And a 404 means that the page is temporarily unavailable.
In your case, I think I'd want to setup a process where for 3-7 days, you return a simple 404. I.e. the page is temporarily unavailable. If during those 3-7 days, the page comes back up - start serving it per normal.
If after 3-7 days, the page is still not up, I'd serve up a custom 410 page that offers alternatives that can be clicked through to if the customer/property owner did not list again. If he ever DOES list again, I'd be sure to 301 to the new page, regardless of time delay.
There may also be some thought to allowing pages to display in a historical sense. I.e. - this is what the page you want looked like - but it's no longer available. Thus preserving some of the traffic, which you might find some use for.
Finally - some possible ideas for "missing pages"
- Present other properties very close to the missing property
- Communicate with your viewer what is happening. i.e. - the listing agent/owner removed the listing - but over XX% of properties delisted come back within 10 days! Please check back - would you like us to email you if this property comes back online? (collect email opportunity!)
- Present a historical page showing what the listing used to look like. (legal issues?)
- Display a 404 page - but provide other interesting information/content. i.e. since you know what the old page was like - you probably can figure out related/highly related content to present in it's stead.
Hope this helps
Kevin
