404 error page

[Tolis]

I have made a page named 404.html that says sorry for the trouble. Please go to our home page or contact us
http://www.easytraveller.gr/404.html.
Checking Google webmasters tools at my sitemap I discover that the site is not verified since the 404 error page returns a status 200. I am prompted to do a verification via a meta tag.
Shall I keep the 404 page as it is to help people get around the site or shall I cancel it for the search engines?

[incrediblehelp]

I am getting 404 header here:

HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Content-Length: 1635
Content-Type: text/html
Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
MicrosoftOfficeWebServer: 5.0_Pub
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 01:34:39 GMT
Connection: close

[seomagnet]

Hello,

When using a page like that, I've always found that you should use an http redirect or something that last no longer than 3 seconds. Otherwise, your bounce rate will increase.

You should always keep an eye on your log files so that you can get an idea of whether it works to your benefit or not.

Just a thought,
Chris