I have a website with a lot of user content. This content can be deleted.
Right now, when someone lands on a deleted content, I send a 404 with a custom page telling "this content was been deleted, here's a list of other content you might find interesting".
All of this is fine for the user perspective.
When I open up Google Webmaster Tools, I often get a bunch of items in the error report telling me I have 404 pages. I kinda don't like having items in that list.
I'm I doing this right? Should I really send a 404 on deleted content? (are there alternative)