Don’t Forget Your 404 Page

Time and time again I see this little gem overlooked by proficient webmasters who really should know better. The 404 page, for anyone who doesn’t know, is the page that the server returns when the requested page isn’t found. It is usually located at public_html/404.shtml and is simply a web page which can be edited to look any way you like.

Note: SHTML is HTML with SSI (Server Side Includes) enabled. SSI allows you to put special commands in your HTML pages like <!–#echo var=”DOCUMENT_NAME” –> (displays the name of the document) to display different information which changes depending on the page or server it’s used on. You can use SSI for many different things. For a good beginners guide on SSI check out this link: http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/ssi.shtml

While a good website will have fewer broken links and hence less people ending up on their 404 page, virtually every popular website will get a decent amount of traffic to the 404 page. This isn’t always through their own fault. For example if another popular site links to them but makes a typo in the URL, the visitor will get the 404 page. Using SSI the 404 page can look at the requested page and decide whether or not to forward the visitor onto another page or to the home-page, or to simply display a ’404- not found’ message.

But one use for the 404 page that people always seem to overlook is to generate revenue. Any page which generates traffic can generate income, that’s one of the fundamental laws of the internet. Since the 404 is getting traffic, why not use it? By simply putting a large AdSense block slap bang in the middle of your 404 page, you can make a few cents every time someone arrives. If you display the end of the URL of the page requested in a header tag (<h1>, <h2>, etc) along with the name of your site, then that’s usually enough to match the AdSense block to the content of the page the person is requesting.

For example say you have the page http://www.watersports.com/jetskis/XL-Jetski2000.html, a simple article about the new XL 2000 Jetski, but someone mistakenly links to http://www.watersports.com/jetskis/XL_Jetski2000.html or http://www.watersports.com/jetski/XL-Jetski200.html or whatever. By having the XL-Jetski2000 displayed in a header tag, perhaps with the category in a smaller header tag (Jetskis), then AdSense knows the person is looking for information on Jetskis, specifically the new XL-2000 model, and can display ads relevant to that product. Since the user can’t find the information they requested (but of course you display a link to your home page as well), they are more likely to click the Ads to get the information they require. This works a hundred times over for each 404 page returned without you having to change a single thing.

Alternatively you can use your 404 page to sell advertising space, links to other sites, advertise your products or email lists, or just about anything else you can think of. The nature of the 404 page means that many times, if done right, it can be a profitable and very useful little page that requires no future attention.

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