Hi all…
Is it necessary to have custom 404 page? Does it help in SEO?
I have an idea the search engines don’t like to see a lot fo 404 errors. Anyhow, it makes good sense to have a custom 404 page, as you can help people find what they are looking for, or at least give them a good reason to stick around.
It is essential that your server is correctly configured to give a 404 response when a non-existent page is requested (rather than a 200 A-OK), but search engines couldn’t care less whether a custom error page is in place. The only time it might make a difference is if there are lots of dead links to your site out there, so every time the spider follows one of those links, it is presented with your site navigation rather than a dead end, it might speed up the indexing process. But if you’ve got that many dead links out there, worrying about whether spiders will benefit from a custom error page is the least of your problems.
Custom error pages, like pretty much everything else you do on your website, are there to help people using the site.
I don’t use this, but this may help http://videos.webpronews.com/2008/08/22/matt-cutts/
I just redirect my 404 traffic to a landing site.