Custom 404 Error Page for SEO Purposes

I am tired of getting the generic, non-informative 404 error pages. Then I realized that anyone on my website would see the same thing, so I had to change it! I found a couple of great websites that gave me a lot of information. Does it really help you if you get to the top of the search engines but your website isn't user-friendly? No users means no sales means no money.

Back in March 2007, Bruce Clay, Inc. wrote on their blog about the importance of custom 404 error pages and seo:

• Your custom error page should contain the following ingredients:
• An apology for the error
• A prominent search box
• A link to your site map
• A link to your home page
• Links to the other main areas of your site

Jeff Atwood points out something that I didn’t know:

• He says to make sure your customized 404 page is larger than 512 bytes or
• some browsers will assume it’s the standard Web server 404 message and
• replace it with their own

Google Webmaster Tools is now offering a great new service with a free custom 404 error page widget.

• Automatically provides users with helpful suggestions
• It adds a search box for your site with appropriate search suggestions
• It tries to provide alternatives to incorrect URLs