Google focuses on 404 error pages for SEO
13th August 2008 by Emily Mace
This week Google are focussing on 404 error pages as an important part of any site’s SEO.
Google have stressed the importance of returning a 404 header status when delivering a 404 message so that when the search engine crawlers reach a broken link they are able to tell that this is a broken page and not a page to be indexed on your site. This will help with your SEO particularly if you use them in conjunction with 301 (permanently moved) redirects on pages from your site.
There are a few issues with 404 error pages that need to be considered. The first relates to the standard non custom 404 message that is generated by a server. This is a server error page that may look like the below image.
This standard error message must be set up to return a numeric 404 header status code. 404 header codes are what inform the search engines that the page could not be found. A normal working page on a website will return a 200 header code, informing the search engines that all is OK on the page they are accessing. When working on your website the 404 header code must be set up to return for the error page on your site on the server. Many websites make the mistake of returning a 200 error on the 404 page of their site which won’t help their search engine rankings at all!
The next step is to set up a custom 404 page.
Custom 404 pages have added benefits as they tell a visitor to the site that what they are looking for could not be found in a user friendly way, removing the “tech speak” of a server error message. Customising the 404 page to look and behave like your website will enable a visitor to move away from the error page and find other things on your site. It is good to include a polite message to users regarding the fact that a page could not be found but to also include links to your main site pages and site map to help them to find what they are looking for on your site. Our custom 404 page is shown below, as you can see it offers the standard site navigation along with some links to the key pages on our site.
However it is still important to implement 301 redirects on pages you have moved. This is an important step for the SEO of your site as you are telling the Search Engines that they should no longer look at the original page URL as it has permanently moved to a new location. The 301 header status and redirect works both to redirect the user and search engine but also to give the search engines the news about the permanent change to the URL.
Checking the 404 page on your site is easy – just type your URL followed by /errr for example our 404 page can be found here www.vertical-leap.co.uk/errr. Once you have the 404 error page in your browser you can easily see if the page returned when a broken link is followed is useful for the SEO of your site and your visitors.
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