Hi, Recently while working on a new project i got a doubt, When a link in a site is removed or a wrong url of the website pages is entered into the address bar we usually get a 404 Error page stating the link is broken or the page doesnot exist. I thought of an idea, instead of putting the regular boring 404 error page, why not we design a 404 error page with the website logo and similar layout of the website and let the browser the display this newly designed page every time a 404 error appears. But then I got doubt whether putting such would effect SEO of my website in anyway............. i mean if it turns positively that's cool with me, but if search engines rank it bad which is not good for me. Please guys do give your suggestions or any alternatives, if that idea works out well i am gonna love that thing (Designed 404 error page) on my site.
I am quite new to SEO, so I can't tell you the search engine ranking benefits of 404 page, But it surely helps in improving the site navigation. It helps you to direct user back to a meaningful page over your site if he/she has landed over some invalid/non-existing page. To, redirect user back to your site you can do following things: 1) For Static Websites: a)For static websites you can place some Intro to the site and also provide a a graphical sitemap to the user that he can use to navigate back to your site. b) A contact / query from can also be placed onto the 404 page so that the user can mail the webadmin and give his feedback. 2) For Dynamic sites (Like wordpress blogs) There are a lot of customizations for wordpress blogs. a) You can integrate archives links in your 404 page. b) You can add popular posts that are most viewed on your site. c) You can also provide recent post information over the 404 page. d) You can place search box on the page so that user can search information from within your site. e) Showing Tag Cloud and Categories is also not a bad idea. You can also place a sorry-for-inconvenience message in your 404 page. An Informative, creative and artistic 404 page is a very good idea to keep user browsing your site, even if he landed on some non-existing page.
I dressed mine up. The goal was to make the 404 page as accessible as possible while still being useful to the user (the goal was accessibility and usability, not SEO). You can see an example at http://www.dan-schulz.com/404/ For more information on styling 404 errors (and some cool examples -- because let's face it, mine sucks), please visit these pages: http://www.avgjoeblogger.com/404/ http://zymic.com/show_templates.php?id=1 http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/error-handling-user-experience http://blog.errorlytics.com/guidelines-for-an-effective-404-error-page/ http://www.problogger.net/404/ http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/09/11/create-a-custom-404-error-page-for-your-blog/ http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Website-Promotion-Help/404-Trick-for-Web-Promotion/
You should definitely build a custom 404 page to help the visitior find their way back to your site. This is very common. Just make sure that when the page renders, it actually returns a 404 HTTP status code and NOT a 200 like many mistakenly do.
Yes, you can do any cosmetics to your 404 page but one thing to keep in mind the HTTP status / return code should always be 404.