Use of 404 pages
 

I know there was a recent thread sorta on this topic, but I've got a specific question I'd like some feedback on.

I'm considering reworking what I do with 404 pages. I currently use one FPA or another, plus a link back to the main page of the site.

I'm tempted to try a "404 trap" console, and I'm wondering if anyone else has used this type of setup on 404 pages, and if so how it worked out.

TIA

On wlfp I use a plain and simple 404 page and get better than 30% ctr and around 1:700 conversions from lovercash sites on it.

But I've found on sites where I use popups and SP2 beater exit consoles... the conversion ratios can be 1:30,000 ... so if I am dealing with traffic I think holds sales, I avoid fancy exit consoles etc now... and when I do use them, I feed the traffic into a couple of domains setup with traffic trading sctripts rather than bothering trying to sell them anything much directly.

A popup to an SP2 user is such a "fright" now, I think it freaks surfers out much more than a console used to in the past.. and kills conversion ratios in a big way.

You could try a 404 fake gallery and link it to a ppc type program. Meaning all thumbnails lead to sponsor site. I might try that today because I notice the signup ratio is kind of deplorable on 404 traffic and it's still eating bandwidth.

Could you directly redirect to a sponsor? I was thinking of just sending my traffic directly to one of my sponsor sites, but I'm not sure how effective that would be...but I'm thinking in the long run it would save on bandwidth as 404 page would more or less be hosted by my sponsor.

Do you mean "fake 404s" or genuine ones ? If you mean genuine 404's then I find it is best to send them to the site's main index page (so that they can hopefully find a page that works) and also fix the 404. The way I do this is by sending them to a Perl script that sends me an email with the URL that 404d then redirects the surfer to site's main index page.

I mean genuine 404s, but I should be clear on where they come from. I've got a lot of requests for pages that don't exist and never existed. Don't know if it's surfers looking for hidden pages or what, but my error log is full of requests for odd pages that have never been and never will be on my sites. The domain with the most 404 requests if Fetish Philes, and on that one I've got an error message with a link back to the main pages, then an FPA in case someone wants to click on it instead of going back to the root domain.

I've never really been one to use agressive consoles in the past, but it was thinking maybe this was an application where it would work. After hearing Opti's experience I think I'll just try rotating FPAs to see if I can find one that really sells.

Thanks for the input guys. :)

I get that on expired domains that I purchased. I find it another good reason to throw 404's at my index page. If it is people going to old bookmarks or coming from old links, it gets them into my site. But if it is people looking for hidden pages, it will soon get them fed up enough to bugger off.

To save on bandwidth I have a very plain 404-page with mostly text links in a nicely bordered table, plus a small text link to my main page way below...

404s on gallery traffic (like people trying to find the next directory) I send straight to my TGP (even though it's heavy on bw that way).

i think its important to consider the source of the 404 traffic when making the page

and then match your 404 to the source :)

I used to have a standard 404 page with screen grabs and links through to my sites but now I fire iall my 404 traffic straight into my TGP sites. It's just a personal opinion but it works for me!

Cheers