404 page optimization - important

[janegrath]

hi,

when search engine crawls the site or an ordinary user surf the site, there may be a chance when they both did not get the page they want.

In this case most of the times a system 404 page get displayed. It means the server is unable to process the client's request.

In this case spider will not crawl the entire site and user will either go away from your site or will hit back button.

Many of you know very well about custom 404 pages and its importance. But many times its overlooked by many webmasters. or you may not optimize the page properly.

Here are some tips on what you can put on your 404 optimized page :-

1. the template you use for 404 page must be same as your site theme.
2. add your sitemap in this page.
3. add a link to your FAQ section.
4. add your complete navigation bar.
5. an apology message for error.
6. add a link to your popular posts like blog post, forum posts etc.

A 404 page will surely help spiders to crawl the site even if an error occured.
And user will also get happy as they can still access the site even if they found an error.

[DennisBerc]

Interesting. I think that the best place there sitemap. Also such thing must be done on 403 error page. As far as I know this page is more visited by bots.

[sheena]

Thanks for the tips and it is interesting to know about 403 error page.

[Cornbread]

Would it be considered cloaking if you made your 404 error page your site map page?

[janhvizdak]

I disagree with add your sitemap in this page. - this doesn't make any sense. You should link to sitemap instead. Because if your site has 10000 internal pages it would be not normal to put 10000 links to just one page.

Additionally, if you set-up a 404 page it will return the code 200. Said in a simple way, non-existing page will return "success". But this is OK, 404 pages are necessary for every larger project . Good post at all.

[Bernard]

Originally Posted by janhvizdak

Additionally, if you set-up a 404 page it will return the code 200.

Not if you do it correctly. You can use this HTTP header checker to see that http://www.plantswap.net/garbage returns a proper 404 code.


BTW, v7n.com does not have a good custom 404 page set up....

[janegrath]

hi janhvizdak,

u didnt understood my points.

By saying add your sitemap in this page. I wanted to say that add a link to sitemap from this page.

and ornbread, how it would be cloaking?

I just wanted to say that add a sitemap link to your 404 page.

Just like you will add the header/footer to your page.

Thats it.

[Jesse Vlasveld]

I think it is a part of user-friendliness to integrate your normal layout to the 404 page. This gives them the ability to visit your original websites. And they don't have to type in the correct address, but just simply click their way to it.

[cloudtrance]

Originally Posted by janhvizdak

I disagree with add your sitemap in this page. - this doesn't make any sense. You should link to sitemap instead. Because if your site has 10000 internal pages it would be not normal to put 10000 links to just one page.

There is nothing wrong with having your sitemap as the 404 page content.
If the site has 10000 internal pages, it doesnt mean your site map should should mention all 10000. Its enough if you mention the main sections and categories for the spiders to get going.

You can add a search function to the 404 page for better user experience.

[janegrath]

yes,
exactly i just wanted to say what Jesse posted.

[elixirwebsolutions]

ya ..i have created 404 error page same as my index page ..