404 pages are one of those annoying things for BOTH webmasters and users. Webmasters hate them as they need to be dealt with in some way and users hate clicking on a link and finding nothing at the other end.

So what should you do in regards to 404 pages?

Some people leave them alone, others apply 301 redirects to all of them. Basically I think you need to do a mix of things depending on your site.

The first thing I would do is create a nice relevant 404 page (see some great ones here) and then leave your 404 pages be. However, there are some instances when you should do something differet. Here they are:

1. Your 404 page receives links to it from external sources
I would: 301 redirect it to a relevant, useful page that needs the extra link juice.

2. Your 404 page gets a substancial amount of user traffic
I would: Either 301 redirect this page to an already existing page that is relevant to what the user is expecting to see, or I would create a new page at this exact url, once again basing it around what the user expects to find.

3. You have an existing page that users should obviously reach
I would: 301 redirect your 404 page to that specific page.

So basically I’m saying keep ‘your nice looking’ 404 pages alive unless you are losing a significant amount of traffic or link juice. Users tend to get confused easily, so redirecting all 404 pages to your homepage or sitemap may actually cause more harm than good.

It pays off to take a good look at your 404 pages along with any traffic or links that maybe pointing into them. Randfish from SEOmoz seems to think along the same lines, check out his post about 404 pages for more info.

One of our clients experienced an odd amount of traffic coming from a new source in their ‘referring sites’ category in Google Analytics: bing.com

On a closer look, we found that bing.com was showing up both in ‘referring sites’ and ’search engines’ categories. After drilling down we discovered that it was due to Google beginning to recognize it as a source of organic traffic around June 8th. Look at the following graphs, first referring sites, then organic.

… and now organic

As you can see, it dropped off and picked up around the same time on the different categories of traffic. A little late to the party? Or did the Google bouncer hold them outside for a little bit =) - you be the judge.

All in all, I’m not that impressed. Unless Bing adds some serious tools to their arsenal to help users find what they’re looking for in an entire new way, I think it will be a hard sell for people to break their habit of using Google. While users may not even be aware that they aren’t happy with the results they see in Google, its hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

Following is a breakdown of search engine traffic from June 10th-June13th, a more accurate depiction after Google began recognizing bing.com as a search engine.

As you can see, once setting the date variable after June 9th, the break down of Search Engine traffic shows Bing at 5.6 %, neck and neck with AOL search. Granted this client’s user base might be a bit learning towards AOL, but I think we can conclude - at least at this stage - Bing will stick around the same % as did Live. It will be interesting to see if this changes in the coming months, but if I had to bet on it, I wouldn’t be going bonkers for bing just yet.

I recently put together a collection of my favourite and most used SEO add-ons for Firefox. So check out my SEO Tools Advanced collection. Feel free to subscribe to the collection which I will be adding to and updating as more great SEO add-ons come along.

These tools are not only easy to install and use, but extremely useful on a day to day basis. TBH, I don’t know where we would be without them - so a big thanks to all the creators for putting such great and useful tools out there!

There are a few additional Firefox add-ons I use, which are not listed on the add-ons website so are not part of the collection. See them here:

Link Diagnosis: You need the firefox add-on installed to properly use the link diagnosis tools. Pulls some great data on site back-links.

Mozbar: The SEOmoz Toolbar - Get access to all the SEOmoz tools and ranks via the toolbar. (Only available to PRO Members)

RankChecker: The RankChecker from seobook is a great tool for seeing where your site ranks for chosen keywords quickly and easily.

Do you have other SEO Firefox add-ons you recommend? Let me know!

We have just released a range of affordable seo packages aimed at smaller businesses who want to achieve results with limited budgets - and I’m pretty excited about it!

There are 6 different packages based on the amount of keyword phrases to be targeted. Also included is a complete one-off package and the option of on-going monthly seo at an affordable rate. Each package includes keyword research, on-site optimisation, weekly keyword reporting and on-going hints, tips and recommendations on how to improve your site and its rankings from our top seo technicians here at Matan Media.

Many small business owners are unaware of the difference they could make to their site, traffic and income through investing in a well planned seo strategy campaign. In many cases results are more than achievable without massive investment.

Click here to view our small business seo packages

Whilst Marc and myself have known each other and worked together for many years, Matan Media was only established during Feb/March of 2008. What a year it’s been too! Not for a minute did I think it was going to be this much fun, challenging or rewarding. We’ve grown from just 2 guys to a healthy team of 7 full-time staff and many more freelancers. We’ve grown our client list by over 200% and hopefully in the coming months we’ll continue to build on that.

So what has been our secret? Well for starters, Marc and I have not had a life since it all began (apart from the week when Marc became a father!), I speak to Marc more than I speak to my wife (no bad thing sometimes!) and we are constantly challenging each other to learn, develop and improve. We know full well that clients will only stay with us if they see the benefits and results of our work, whether that be via higher rankings or a better ROI. After a few chops and changes, the staff we now have in place are all fantastic. They work hard and more importantly they work well together.

So, to all our staff, we say thanks very much for making this year so enjoyable. To all our clients, we say, keep demanding and expecting the high working practices we continuously deliver. More importantly though, thanks for the business and we look forward to working with you all throughout our second year.

Please keep reading the blog people, it is our aim to improve it this year, so lots coming up!