theBear - 10:10 pm on Jan 16, 2006 (gmt 0)

Web_speed,

ErrorDocument 404 /include/404error.shtml

In your root .htaccess file

Make certain that there are no other such directives in any .htaccess files or in the httpd.conf file or any included configuration files called by the http.conf file .

Note in particuler the ErrorDocument doesn't have any [domainname...] in it.

A lot of folks include the [domainname...] part and that sets up an internal 302 to the page. Google never ever sees a 404. Thus a 302 redirect followed by a 200 found and the error page becomes the content (or did) that Google has for the URL. and one of the reasons that a 302 should always be placed into the index at the target page. Use the homepage and you get (or got) duplication of the homepage in the index.

I haven't checked to see if this condition still exists. That is how for Apache.