Make the 404 Page like the Home Page

Can I serve a 404 page that is the home page?

[joebiff]

I have a CSS file that is highly ranked on Y*hoo (go figure) and when folks click on the SERP to go to the site they receive a 404 error. I know technically how to do this, but with regards to the Adsense TOS, can I make the 404 page look/act like the home page (including serving AdSense ads)?

[wonderboy]

I can't think of any reason why not, plenty of sites have 404s that use their site's template...
W.

[ncw164x]

You can have your 404 error page look like you home page but you are not allowed to serve the adsense on this page as per the Program Policies

Ad Placement
No Google ad may be placed on any non-content-based pages. This includes "ERROR", login, registration, "thank you" or welcome pages.

[encyclo]

Are you using any server-side scripting in your CSS file and what mime type is it served with? It certainly shouldn't be in the SERPs unless you're accidentally serving it as

text/plain

, but since it is...

Your best bet is to do a 301 redirect server-side to a new page (not the home page) with some custom-written content relevant to the original seach query. Then, you can simply add AdSense to that new page.