401 redirect to landing page a no no?

customized landing pages

[ssling]

i'm experimenting with something a little different and need some advice.

i have a ppc campaign where the target url is something like:
[mysite.com...]

but such a page does not actually exist on my site. The visitor is redirected (401) to my all purpose landing page which is customized on the basis of that URL, to lend relevancy.

my question is, will i get penalized by the ppc engines for this type of redirect?

thanks,
ssling

[ssling]

sorry, typo 404 redirect is what i meant.

[jdMorgan]

No, they'll simply delete your target URL, as you have instructed them to do with the 404-Not Found response... :o

Use a 301-Moved Permanently redirect -- this is an HTTP protocol [w3.org] matter.

Jim

[edit] Added link to HTTP/1.1 Status Code Definitions. [/edit]

[edited by: jdMorgan at 12:48 am (utc) on Sep. 20, 2007]

[ssling]

okay. thanks very much.

ssling