Webmaster Resources : 404 Errors - And 5 Ways to Avoid Them

Summary : When a page on your website comes up as a 404 error, a potential customer or viewer will simply go to another site to find what they need. The best webmaster solution for this problem is to avoid creating 404s in the first place.

Picture this: you want to shop, so you look for a store in the yellow pages and find the address. Once you get to where the store is supposed to be located, you discover it's not there anymore. When that happens on the Internet it's called a 404. Considering all the time and effort that you've put into finding this store, I imagine you'd be pretty upset. I most certainly would. Would you try to find out where the store had moved? Probably not.

This is exactly what happens when a page on your website comes up as a 404. The potential customer, or reader, who clicked the inbound link will simply go to another site with a little click of the mouse.

What Causes a 404?

For new webmasters unfamiliar with a 404, it's an error code displayed when a user requests a web page that's no longer available on the server. This often happens when sites change layout and or page information --- but 404s are by no means unavoidable! In fact, I think it's a safe bet to say that this would never happen if webmasters and site owners always double-checked their work. Monitoring the status of any site is an important part of website management. Unfortunately, however, too many sites seem to slip through the net.

Although the page may be unavailable, there is no warning for your audience. A potential customer or viewer performs a keyword search for something relevant to your site. The search engine results list includes your missing page, but, as the search engine hasn't sent another spider to the site recently, the inactive link remains in search results.

Guess what happens when the user clicks on the link? They're taken to a 404 page. Typically, this is a standard page saying nothing more than 'page not found'. There are no links to the main site, no explaination, no direction. Online, this is like saying "Hey thanks for trying but we don't want you here." Accordingly, the user usually returns to the search engine and clicks on a competitior's listing. Just like that, you've lost traffic.

A True Story

404 errors caused a real problem for a client who run an online stock site that provides users with insights and tips into the world of trading.

They were very new to the whole search engine optimization arena and wanted more traffic for their site. After doing some research at a few search engines, I was amazed at what I found. They had some good rankings, but the pages listed were no longer available on their site. There were 404s everywhere.

Once I realized what was happening I could help solve the problem. The client had no idea that each time people were clicking on their search engine listing they were getting the "404 page not found" error message. They now understood that these people wanted to visit the site, but because of the company's lack of attention to detail, these potential clients would simply visit a competitor's site instead. I could only guess how many visitors were lost due to these missing pages.

Avoid the 404!

So what was the solution for my client? The solution steps was a simple, but effective webmaster resource :

1. Redirect on-site

   I showed them how, instead of ever taking a page down, they should redirect the page to a main page of their site (or a page that displays a message saying "Sorry but this page is no longer updated. Please visit our homepage or contact us for more information").

2. Redirect from the host

   Another option is to check with your hosting company to see if they offer a 404 redirect. Then, when a user enters the URL of any page off your domain (i.e.-www.yourcompany.com/nopage) that doesn't exist, they are automatically taken to a specified page, such as your index or home page. Many servers even allow webmasters to customize the language and links of their 404 pages, so this may be done by simply editing one file. It's the easiest way to ensure that a potential customer is never lost due to a page not being found.

3. Submit new pages to the search engines

   Another tactic is to resubmit new pages to search engines for reindexing. Although it's nice to inform visitors that a page they're looking for no longer exists, it's even better to have the new page with all the desired information appear when they perform a search.

4. Keep an eye on your page listings

   Do yourself a favour and check regularly to make sure your site listings aren't taking potential clients to 404 pages. Go to a search engine like www.altavista.com and type www.yoursiteURL.com in the search bar. If the search results index a page that no longer appears on your server:

   • go to the search engine's submissions page and submit the new URL for the page that covers the information of the old page
   • make note of the name of the page that's no longer available, and rename an existing page with this old title.

   This way you can insure that people who search for information on your site will be taken to the correct page until the new page is indexed -- and insure you don't lose potential sales because of missing pages.

5. Get organized with updates

   Keep notes: website maintenance is a big job, so don't rely solely on your memory. Keep a notebook or digital log full of your site changes to help refresh your memory and ensure you follow up changes with the search engines.

Throw Open Your Virtual Doors!

In the 3 months after we corrected the 404s on the client site, we saw a dramatic rise in unique visitors. Although the company implemented other web marketing tactics, I'm positive that correcting the 404s contributed to their traffic increase. The moral of the story: don't close a door to your site, you never know who might come knocking.

About the author : Haig Sakouyan is a search engine expert and is the President of My Marketing Pro, an Internet services company.