How
to Create a Custom 404 Error Page
How to Create a Custom 404 Error Page and Get
Your Lost Visitors Back
By Merle http://MCPromotionsPress.com
One thing that's certain on the Web is nothing
stays the same for very long. This is especially
true when it comes to pages of your website. When
you first create your site you may think you'll
never need to alter the structure. But as your
site grows, chances are there will come a day
when you need to move or change the names of existing
pages.
So what's the problem, you ask? Well, if you've
been busy promoting your website (and you should
be) specific pages are going to be out there in
"cyberspace" listed in search engines, on other
websites in the form of link swaps, in directories,
articles, etc. It would be impossible to contact
all of these people and give them the new url-
So what's a Webmaster to do? Create a custom 404
error page.
A custom 404 error page is a special HTML page
that you create on your server that auto- matically
comes up if someone types in a wrong url, misspells
a url, or tries to call a page from your server
that no longer exists. By creating one of these
pages you can capture what would be "lost traffic"
and send them to the correct place or guide them
to a new page.
So what does a good custom error page contain?
There are important ingredients you'll want to
include:
1) Contact Info: Tell them how they can reach
you by email or phone.
2) Brief Explanation: Tell them why they have
reached a page that no longer exists or has been
moved and give them other options.
3) Include a valid link menu, site map or search
function so they may still find what they are
looking for, or perhaps another page.
So now that you know what to include in your error
page you need to create it, and give it a name
-- something like "error404.html."
Once that's done, you need to connect to your
web server and look in the root directory for
a file called .htaccess You may not see it using
your FTP program because all files that start
with a dot are hidden under UNIX and Linux systems.
You can fix that by changing your file display
filter to "-la" (list all).
If you still don't see it you'll need to create
it. Make sure it is named with the .dot in front
of the htaccess, like this: .htaccess. If the
file is already there, open it up and add the
complete path to your error page like this:
ErrorDocument 404 http://YourDonain.com/404errorpage.html
Make sure the text is all typed on 1 line and
you leave a space on both sides of the 404 part
and that the E and the D in ErrorDocument is in
caps.
Now just FTP this revised .htaccess page and your
404errorpage.html up to your server and you're
done. Test it by typing an incorrect url into
your browser and make sure your new error page
is working correctly.
From now on you'll never need to worry about losing
another visitor due to 'rearranging the furniture,"
so to speak. By helping your visitors get to where
they want to go, you'll be helping them and yourself
to a visitor who would otherwise been lost in
space- and that's a good thing!
