Imagine this scenario: You walk into a store looking for a specific item. You know the store carries it, but you can’t remember the exact name of it. You walk up to a store clerk and ask him to help you find it.
The clerk tells you where to find the item in the store… but first he hands you advertisements from some of the store’s competitors.
Far-fetched you say? That’s exactly what Google’s Webmaster Tools 404 Widget does. Yes, you can install the widget on your website’s 404 page. And yes, if you type in a word or phrase in the widget, it will give you a list of the relevant pages on your website.
But first, Google may display paid advertisements above the organic search results. And chances are, those paid ads are coming from your competitors.
So before you think the 404 widget is an easy fix for your page-not-found errors, do some testing to see what comes up. You may be unpleasantly surprised by the results.
