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Google serving up results to pages that have moved or no longer exist.
I detect my 404 errors with webtrends and I am told the referrer of the link together with the page in question.
My site (local authority) runs in to 500+ pages and I notice that it's the same pages that are cashed/still indexed by google even though they have moved or no longer exist.
A simple work around I am having to use works effitively and I'll share with you because nobody else has provided my suggestion....
If your getting a page 404 error that refers to a page that has simply moved you could create a page in it's old location containing a redirect, either via meta tag or a simple javascript function which I will more than happilly knock up if your stuck.
The other suggestion that has already been noted is a custom page 404, try to make these as friendly as possible. Not everybody is an advanced as some of us and you dont want to create the impression that they have done something wrong.
Provide possible reasons for the error on your page, possible solutions like verify the URL for correctness.
And most importantly provide a method of contact and possibly a link to your sites search engine and main sections.
I think I have covered everything in a way that will prevent you from losing/scaring away your visitors.
Regards
Neil Allen
Full time Web developer and
Part-Time Technical Support Officer
For pages that are no longer available but still showing in SERP's I would put up a simple page with a link to the index page but make sure it contains
<meta name="robots" content="follow, noindex">
They should gradually phase out of all search engines.
EW
