diff --git a/controllers/Parse.php b/controllers/Parse.php
index eebe12a..0905a13 100644
--- a/controllers/Parse.php
+++ b/controllers/Parse.php
@@ -192,6 +192,16 @@ class Parse {
 
     $xpath = new DOMXPath($doc);
 
+    // Check for meta http equiv and replace the status code if present
+    foreach($xpath->query('//meta[@http-equiv=\'status\']') as $el) {
+      $equivStatus = ''.$el->getAttribute('content');
+      if($equivStatus && is_string($equivStatus)) {
+        if(preg_match('/^(\d+)/', $equivStatus, $match)) {
+          $result['code'] = (int)$match[1];
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
     // If a target parameter was provided, make sure a link to it exists on the page
     if($target=$request->get('target')) {
       $found = [];
@@ -228,16 +238,6 @@ class Parse {
       }
     }
 
-    // Check for meta http equiv and replace the status code if present
-    foreach($xpath->query('//meta[@http-equiv=\'status\']') as $el) {
-      $equivStatus = ''.$el->getAttribute('content');
-      if($equivStatus && is_string($equivStatus)) {
-        if(preg_match('/^(\d+)/', $equivStatus, $match)) {
-          $result['code'] = (int)$match[1];
-        }
-      }
-    }
-
     // If the URL has a fragment ID, find the DOM starting at that node and parse it instead
     $html = $result['body'];
 
diff --git a/tests/FetchTest.php b/tests/FetchTest.php
index fe84f0c..7cebeef 100644
--- a/tests/FetchTest.php
+++ b/tests/FetchTest.php
@@ -116,4 +116,21 @@ class FetchTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase {
     $this->assertEquals(410, $data->code);
     $this->assertEquals('This post has been deleted.', $data->data->content->text);
   }
+
+  public function testMetaEquivDeletedTargetProvided() {
+    // for example when verifying a webmention but the source was replaced with an html deleted page
+
+    $url = 'http://source.example.com/deleted';
+    $response = $this->parse([
+      'url' => $url,
+      'target' => 'http://example.com/'
+    ]);
+
+    $body = $response->getContent();
+    $this->assertEquals(200, $response->getStatusCode());
+    $data = json_decode($body);
+    $this->assertObjectHasAttribute('error', $data);
+    $this->assertEquals('no_link_found', $data->error);
+    $this->assertEquals(410, $data->code);
+  }
 }