Do 404 Error Pages get indexed by Google and other search engines? Just wondering because I want to make 404 error page the same as my home page. Will this hurt my search engine ranking?

it depends.

What does it depend on?

If you have alot of broken links perhaps that may effect it. For example if you have a link say about.html and it obtains alot of visits 'per' day Google may see that and index it. It's very important you deleted all broken links it's tacky and not correct with any website.

Broken links kill traffic, Just try to reduce it. you can also add a broken link notifier button with links, through which user can submit broken link. I think it will not tough to make it in PHP.

Thanks for all the replies guys... Does meta "noindex" help any?

I found exactly what I needed... I just used <meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="5; URL=www.domain.com"> to have my 404 page redirect to my homepage...I also used <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> to keep that page from getting indexed..

Originally Posted by brandon123

What does it depend on?

If it returns a 404 response or not.

If it does then it will never be indexed.

If it doesn't every mis-spelt and removed page will still be indexed as well.

What you can do is to customize the 404 Error Page. And the prevent it to get indexed by putting the same in the robots.txt file. I would rather suggest you to customize the 404 Error page and not to opt for making it same like the Home Page. Its confusing for visitors as well as for the Search Engine.

I just used <meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="5; URL=www.domain.com">

I don't believe this is a good option in the Long Run