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Avoid
ugly error 404 pages that turn visitors away. Give
them the option to stay on your site by giving them
a custom error 404 page that looks and feels like
your
site. Having a broken or old link gives a very bad
impression and can lose you a customer before you have
had a chance to impress them with your well-designed
site.
An error 404 page simply means that the web browser
could not find the file you requested. This
is termed as a page not found error. The
server generates an error (404), and enters it in
the error log, then it returns the page that it is
set up to return as standard. These pages are
usually very ugly and look nothing like your site,
furthermore they look nothing like what the visitor
was looking for.
How Do People React to Error 404 Messages?
The vast majority of web users are not technically
knowledgeable and do not know what an error 404 message
is. They simply know it is not what they were looking
for and click back in their browser. Some people
know to go to the root of the domain but this is
still not what they are looking for. The fact of
it is that when most people see an error 404 page
they think the site no longer exists and will simply
go and find another site.
Why You Need an Error 404 Page
If you think that this does not apply to you consider
the following: In 2 years' time when you added
several sections and changed names, etc., your site
will have mutated into something else. The
fact is that mistakes can be made, links missed
or spelled incorrectly and not checked. Even
if your site is perfect, someone can still put a
link to your site and spell a file name incorrectly giving
a bad impression of your site through no fault of
your own.
A custom error 404 page will help to keep a site
visitor even if they turn up at a page that wasn't
quite what they were expecting. A custom error
404 page should tell the user where they are, what
page they are on, the likely cause of being there
and where they can go to find the information they
require. It is all about keeping that visitor
and turning them into what they were before they
got that error 404 a potential customer.
What Should
an Error 404 Page Look Like?
The last thing an error 404 page should look like
is the standard or default error 404 pages. You should
aim to make an error 404 page that looks and feels
identical to your site, then with any luck most users
won't even realise that an error 404 page has been
generated and won't have a tarnished view of your
site before they buy.
Use the same colors, logo, buttons, links and navigation
as you use on your home page. Then give the
users a link to a search page, the home page or other
important areas as well as giving them your standard
navigation system. With many options the
user is far less likely to click back on their
browser. One important thing to note is that
an error 404 document can be served in any directory i.e.
www.yourdomainname.com/PDF/engineering/marketing.
This means that you should always use explicit
and full file names for any links, images, etc.
What Do the Error Codes Mean?
There is technically an error code, or status code,
generated every time a request is made to a web server
even if the request was successful. For example
the status code 200 means ok. Codes in the
200 and 300 range are generally successful requests
that have a file returned. 400 errors are generally
bad errors, which are either incorrect or bad requests. If
you have access to your server logs or a good statistics
package you can see how many error 404's are actually
generated. On one site I maintain the stats
package shows that for last week 1.3% of all requests
are 404 errors. This may not seem like much but when
that 1.3% means 38 requests you can see how
many visitors you could be losing.
What Are the
Requirements for Setting Up an Error 404 Page?
Ok, this is where it can get tricky. The requirements
for setting up an error 404 page depend upon
your set up and web server. Generally, you need
to have administrator access rights to your server.
As most shared servers (the most common type for
small business web sites) do not allow you to have
full administrator rights you may have a problem. Some
good web hosts allow you administrator rights to
your directory alone, this is very useful. If
you are not sure about this ability ask your web
hosting company, as they may be able to set this
function for you.
How Do You Put Up an Error 404 Page?
An error 404 page is controlled by a file called
.htaccess. The dot prefixing the name is important. It
is also important to know that windows and Unix systems
treat these files differently as the dot is a hidden
windows file. This is often apparent when you
want to upload or change a .htaccess file as with
some FTP (File Transfer Protocol) packages the file
is not visible. To get around this upload
the .htaccess file as normal and it will overwrite
the existing file.
Another problem here is that windows won't let you
call a file .htaccess. What I do is save and
upload the file as htaccess.txt and then rename it
once uploaded.
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Making Your File
Now that all that's out of the way, here's how to
make your .htaccess file.
Open up your favorite text editor.
Paste this code into the editor:
ErrorDocument 404 / filename . html
Save as htaccess.txt.
Upload the file to the Top Root of your directory.
Rename the file as ".htaccess".
Create and upload the error 404 document
filename.html
Type in an incorrect file path such as www.YourDomainName.com/does-not-exist.html
Revel in your hard work
What Does it All Mean?
The .htaccess file used effectively can be a very
powerful tool. It can be used for far more
than just creating error404 documents. In this
case it simply tells the server that the ErrorDocument
404 is /filename.html rather than the default ErrorDoocument
404. If this command were not in .htaccess or
if there was no .htaccess at all then the default
404 error document would be displayed.
The .htaccess file can be used to stop certain user
agents from visiting the site e.g. an annoying
spider that won't obey the robots.txt file. It
can be used in conjunction with .htpasswd to password
protect a directory as well as many other things.
In Conclusion
Having a custom error 404 document may not seem
like a big deal but when you consider that it needs
no maintenance, does not cost anything and keeps
your potential customers on your site becomes a
smart move. By holding on to your customers
you are keeping them on your site ready to buy from
you, not your competitor. This is a classic
example of the phrase prevention is better than
cure.
The important things to remember are:
- Make sure you have the dot in the .htaccess file.
- Make your error 404 document look like every
other page on your site.
- An Error 404 page stops bad and out-of-date
links tarnishing your image and keeps customers
on your site.
