404 Error Page Best Practices
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PPC Analytics Social Local Mobile Video Content Development Reports 404 Page Best Practices Development 11 Sep 13 | Brad Miller Facebook0Linkedin0Google+0Twitter0 The Internet is no different than anything else in life. Mistakes will always happen. Whether it's because someone has mistyped your URL or you forgot to change an old link, 404 error page template at some point, one of your prospective customers is going to land on a 404 error
Google 404 Error Page
page. The error page is shown whenever a server can't find the specified page. Unfortunately, most marketers see an error page as a "tech issue" 404 error page not found and don't give it a second's thought. The 404 page is rarely given the consideration and importance it deserves. There are many different considerations that, if neglected, could have a significant negative affect on the performance of your site. So, how funny 404 error page should we approach 404s? Why are they relevant to marketers? Let's have a look at each of them in a bit more detail. Limiting the Damage You'll never completely remove the need for a 404 page. Even if you were to clean up your entire internal link structure, you'll always have people mistyping a URL into their search bar (especially if they are searching on a mobile device). You also have very little control over the URLs that other sites use to link
404 Error Page Design
to you. Unless you make it your business to contact every website owner who links to your site, and make sure their links are accurate and up to date, you will inevitably get the odd mistake. Having said all of that, the most embarrassing and detrimental of errors are when someone is sent to a 404 from one of your internal pages. This you can control! To find out which of your pages are currently returning a 404, you can simply check your Webmaster Tools account or use a tool like 404 Checker. You can then check each of these pages and replace any internal links with a more appropriate page on your site. How to Find 404 Pages You can use any number of tools to identify 404 pages, such as Screaming Frog, Link Sleuth, or Google Webmaster Tools. One of the easiest ways is just using a browser extension like Check My Links, which accessible from the Chrome Web Store. This will help you quickly identify internal broken links. But what about the source of the broken link in the first place? Google Webmaster Tools is best for this and will help you not only find broken links, but the source of those broken links as well. Here's how. What About SEO? Many SEO professionals and website owners will use a 301 redirect to take visitors to the site homepage rather than showing them a 404 error page. Though this is the safest optio
SEO with marketing resources for all skill levels: best practices, industry survey results, webinarsandmore. Advance your marketing skills: Local Marketing | Content | Social Media Get 404 error page examples started with: The Beginner's Guide to SEO The Local Learning 404 error page html Center The Beginner's Guide to ContentMarketing Q&A Get answers from the Moz Community Help Hub Learn how
404 Error Page Game
to use Moz Products Community & Events Connect with 500K online marketers Blogs Read the Moz Blog and YouMoz Moz Pro Moz Pro: Resources Overview Features https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2293339/404-page-best-practices Pricing Resources Start My Free 30-Day Trial Overview Features Pricing Resources Start My Free 30-Day Trial HTTP Status Codes HyperText Transfer Protocol (or HTTP) response status codes are returned whenever search engines or website visitors make a request to a web server. These three-digit codes indicate the response and status of HTTP requests. Top https://moz.com/learn/seo/http-status-codes Tips Use 301 redirects rather than 302 redirects when redirecting URLs on a site to ensure that link juice (ranking power) is passed between the redirecting web pages. Web pages that return 404 (File Not Found) for extended periods of time and that have valuable links should be 301 redirected to other web pages. It is important to have customized 404 pages with recommended navigational options when website visitors request pages that return a 404 response code. What are HTTP Status Codes? An SEO's Guide to HTTP Status Codes HTTP Status codes are three-digit numbers returned by servers that indicate the status of a web element. It is important to understand that the first digit of each three-digit status code begins with one of five numbers, 1 through 5. From the 100s through the 500s, status codes fall into the following categories: 100s - Informational: Request has been received and the process is continuing. 200s - Success: Request was received and pro
Joomla! Events Trademark & Licensing User Groups Volunteers Portal Support Forum Documentation Issue Tracker Resources Directory Joomla! Training Extend Extensions Directory Showcase Directory Language Packages Certification Program Developers Developer Network https://magazine.joomla.org/issues/issue-july-2013/item/1390-404-error-page-best-practices-hilarious-examples-included Documentation Bug Squad Security Centre API Documentation JoomlaCode Joomla! Framework Search Joomla! Community Magazineā¢ Download Demo HomeTopicsContactSubscribeAuthorsIssuesInternationalAbout 404 Error Page Best Practices [Hilarious Examples Included] Written by Hannah Kaufman | https://yoast.com/thoughts-404-not-found/ 01 July 2013 | Published in 2013 July We've all been faced with our fair share of 404 error pages. Now think back to those experiences, do you remember how you 404 error reacted? http://www.flickr.com/photos/filicudi/ Let's be honest, you probably got really frustrated when a boring 404 page popped up on your screen. Chances are you don't remember anything about the page because it was just that, a boring and generic 404. In order to stand out and create a great customer experience all of the time, you have to create a 404 error 404 error page page that stands out and is actually helpful.Now you obviously don't want to be known for 404 pages since they mean there is something going wrong with your site. But you also know that mistakes do happen and you have to be prepared. You may think your 404 error pages are irrelevant to your website, but they too should reflect your brand's personality, and most importantly give the viewer another option to click on so they don't leave your website. Let's go through what makes a good 404 page and then review some awesome examples to get the brain juices flowing. So Why Does it Matter? Just to reiterate what I just said, 404 error pages are important because if for some chance a viewer is presented with one, they will want you to help them. By just featuring a general 404 page, without any options, people will click off so fast you won't believe it. They don't want to take time to go back to your website and dig through your content to find another resource that fits their ne
copywritingBasic SEOYoast SEO for WordPresseBooksSEO for WordPressContent SEOUX & ConversionHire usYoast SEO configurationGold reviewPlatinum reviewYoast consultancyFAQWordPress pluginsWebsite reviewsDrupalWordPress themesGeneralCart Thoughts on 404 Not Found error pages May 08th, 2014 – 56 Comments Post author Michiel Heijmans View his other posts » Category Usability & Conversion » Tag 404 » Have you ever wondered why you should have that 404 Not Found page? What's the use? The page is gone or broken and you don't want people to end up there, so why not just redirect that page to the homepage of your website? They even made WordPress plugins that will help you do this, so why not, right? Wrong. What you're basically doing is putting people on a train they did not choose themselves. If I want to go to Paris, why send me to London instead? If a visitor wants to find a certain page on your website, give him that page or an explanation of why you can't. Back to basics The 404 Not Found error means that the URL that was requested doesn't point to a certain page. Or as Wikipedia puts it: "The 404 or Not Found error message is an HTTP standard response code indicating that the client was able to communicate with a given server, but the server could not find what was requested." The page may have been deleted, or the URL was misspelled. The permalink structure might have changed or even the domain name, and redirects could have been set wrong. It doesn't matter why the page isn't there anymore. Just bearĀ in mind that it's probably your fault and not the visitors fault, and write content for that 404 Not Found page based on that assumption. Keep a close eye on your 404s, which can be done by using, for instance, Google Webmaster Tools or Screaming Frog. Note that if you have some pages that need to go down temporarily, the use of a 503 Service Unavailable would of course be better than serving a 404 Not Found page. Smashing did an article on maintenance pages back in 2009: Effective Maintenance Pages: Examples and Best Practices. Required elements of a 404 Not Found page Let's think about this for a while, because the internet is flooded with manuals for great 404 pages and everybody, including myself, has a different opinion on this. First, I really don't think the 404 should be a redirect to any other page. In the article 404 Page Best Practices, SearchEngineWatch als