Why Use Custom 404 Pages

Using a custom 404 page could make the difference between a sale and someone going to your competitor. A custom 404 page is a page that has been created for when a user entered an address or follows a link to a page that no longer exists. It is a growing trend in websites to present custom pages but many websites are miss handleing pages that can not be found. Some people instead of presenting a 404 error redirect straight to the homepage without presenting a 404 error.

This may make sense from a usability point of view so the user never sees a 404 page, however if a search engine finds a 404 page because you have removed a product or changed a URL and it doesnt present a 404 header response then it wont be informed that the page no longer exists. This means that google cant update its index accurately and you could fine that google will then be filled with links that ultimately display the same page. If the redirect they use is a 301 redirect then this can cause big problems as google may cache the URL that doesnt exist with the content from your homepage. If google receives a 404 error then it will alter its index and remove pages that no longer exist.

Google webmaster tools will check for this and will not let you verify your website if your 404 gives a 200 ok response.

So what can you do? Well its simple, you create a custom 404 page that can be just as informative for your users as your homepage. Make sure that you use the template of your website so the user will always see all of your navigation. In the content of the page. A simple message saying the page is not found but maybe recommend other pages of the site for the user to look at, More importantly, make sure the page returns a 404 error for the search engines.

Gary
Senior SEO Programmer

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