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.

Utica, NY, USA, September 1, 2008 (PRESSbooth.ORG) -- The custom 404 error page is often overlooked when it comes to search engine optimization. Back in March 2007, Bruce Clay, Inc. wrote on their blog about the importance of custom 404 error pages and seo. Does it really help you if you get to the top of the search engines but your website isn't user-friendly? No conversions means no money means no future. What happens if Google caches a page and then you change the name of it? A user will click on the link and they're taken to a generic 404 error page.

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
  

Recommendations and instructions on using custom 404 error pages:

• Upload the page to your server
• To do this for a Microsoft IIS Server, open up your "Internet Service Manager" and click on the site you want to set the custom 404 error page for
• From there, select "Properties", and then "Custom Errors" from the list of Radio tabs
• Once selected, scroll down until you come to the file associated with your custom 404 error page
• You can then edit this file or upload a new one for your server to display
• For a Unix server, modify the .htaccess file to include the command(s):
  • ErrorDo*****ent 404 /404.htm
• Note that this will redirect all 404 errors (File not found) to your custom 404 error page
• Save the modified .htaccess and you're done
  

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

• 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
  

Basically, the 404 page mantra is this:

• Be polite
• Be helpful
• Then get out of the way
  

http://www.kandiandkeith.com/404_error.aspx

Contact:
http://www.kandiandkeith.com/