Adsense on 404's

'Error' doesn't appear to have a definition

[Ivana]

Does 404's come under 'error'?

From the Program Policies:

Ad Placement

* Only one ad unit may be placed on each web page.

* Ads must not be displayed on any domain parking websites, pop-ups, pop-unders, error, registration, or "thank you" pages, or in any email.

* Ads may not be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant.

* Elements on a page must not obscure any portion of the ads, and the ad colors must be such that the ad text and URL are visible.

'Error' doesn't appear to be defined anywhere in the FAQ either.

Ivana

[hyperkik]

I am inclined to think that any error page (including a custom page generated by a 404 error) would be ineligible. If you contact Google, they'll answer your question with certainty.

[Ivana]

Yeah, you're probably right, it would make most sense if 404 = error.

[Jenstar]

It is listed in the terms as being prohibited.

Prohibited Uses. You shall not, and shall not authorize or encourage any third party to: ...(v) display any Ad(s) on any error page, registration or "thank you" page ...

Right from the AdSense terms (bold mine).
[google.com...]

[Nick_W]

Is a 404 an error though?

Means the page doen't exist, there's no error as such......

Nick

[mcavill]

from dictionary.com:

The first 4 indicates a client error such as a mistyped URL.
The middle 0 refers to a general syntax error. The last 4
just indicates the specific error in the group of 40x - i'd say it's an error page.... :)

[Nick_W]

We have a winner, better take mine down then, heheh!

nick

[Ivana]

Thanks Jenstar, I must have missed that (I should read, not skim... ), and also thanks to mcavill for the dictionary definition.

[killroy]

Time to create custom 404s with sensible context (url) sensitive content, and return a 200 instead. Of course, that could results into loads of bogus pages being indeed from bad linking... then again that could be a good thing ;)

SN

[jdMorgan]

Even custom error pages should return a 404-Not Found server response status.

By returning a 200-OK status, you may seriously confuse search engines, get into duplicate content issues, etc. And even a custom error page is still an error page under the TOS.

Server response codes - Ref: [w3.org...]

Jim

[dougb]

Time to create custom 404s with sensible context (url) sensitive content, and return a 200 instead.

I think that, too, would violate the spirit if not the letter of TOS. It might be reasonable to redirect 404's to an existing page on your site. But anything that functions as an error page -- where users have an unreasonably high chance of clicking on an ad just because they have no other navigational choice -- is bad for advertisers. I'd contact Google before doing any creative error trapping.

[Yidaki]

Weird discussion, really. That should better go to Webmaster General 'cause if you depend on traffic that gets generated via 404's you should definitely check your server setup and your linkage.

There's no excuse - 404 is error - error means "something wrong". I'd look what's wrong and not how to let look wrong like being right.

Puzzled ...