Many webmasters often ignore or simply overlook one vital element of website design and construction. How often do visitors enter your website from one of their favourite bookmarks or an incorrectly typed URL only to find they land on the default “HTTP 404 Not Found” webpage? So where do they go from here? Sadly, it’s all too often the case that they just hit their browser back button and never return. Imagine, all those visitors that you tirelessly spend so much time, effort and money trying to get onto your website in the first place who are disappearing off into cyberspace for good with just a single click.
We all know how much work is involved in getting internet traffic through search engines and link building exercises so, how should you keep those valuable visitors on your site? – The answer is to build your own “Customised 404 Error Page” and give your visitors a reason to stay or at the very least some way of finding their way to your homepage. Make it user friendly and give it the same look and feel as that of the rest of your site. Most good web hosts will provide you with the necessary tools for generating your own error pages particularly those using the popular cPanel or Plesk web hosting control panels.
Make sure your visitors know why they have landed on your error page with a clear, concise message and the all important “way out”. You may also want to include some form of search facility or navigational elements to make it easy for you users to find their way.
Some webmasters may opt to set up a simple redirect to the sites homepage when a file cannot be found. This has the disadvantage that the user may not realise either that they have been redirected or the reason why. To overcome this, try setting up a webpage with the relevant links and information as described and automatically redirect them following a short delay. An example of this method can be seen at www.getontheinternet.net/nothing-here.html Clearly, the user is informed as to what is happening and within a short period of time they are forwarded onto a familiar homepage.
Another favoured method if your web host permits it, is to create or if appropriate to modify your .htaccess file. First create the file 404.html and upload it to your root directory. Then include the following line of code in your .htaccess file:
ErrorDocument 404 http://yourdomain.com/404.html
To test your custom 404 File Not Found Page on your website, go to the homepage and type in a URL that you know does not exist. You should see your 404 error page load and then be able to test all the links are pointing to the correct files.
Whichever of the above methods you choose to set up your custom 404 File Not Found Pages on your website, you will certainly be reducing the number of potential number of visitors lost.
Copyright © 2007 David Kaye – All rights reserved.
For more free webmaster tips and articles like this on website design, hosting and promotion visit http://www.GetOnTheInternet.net
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