404 File Not Found Error Page Returns A Status Of
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asks for a page that’s simply not available on your site. The reason for this is that there may be a link on your site that was
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wrong or the page might have been recently removed from the site. As 404 error page there is no web page to display, the web server sends a page that simply says "404 Page not
Http Error 404. The Requested Resource Is Not Found.
found". The 404 error message is an HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) standard status code. This "Not Found" response code indicates that although the client could communicate to the server, the server could not error 404 google find what was requested or it was configured not to fulfill the request. The 404 "Not Found" error is not the same as the "Server Not Found" error which you see whenever a connection to the destination server could not be established at all. The default 404 error page as shown on Internet Explorer is given below. HTTP Status Code Whenever you visit a web error 404 text page, your computer will request data from a server through HTTP. Even before the requested page is displayed in your browser, the web server will send the HTTP header that has the status code. The status code provides information about the status of the request. A normal web page gets the status code as 200. But we do not see this as the server proceeds to send the contents of the page. It’s only when there is an error, we see the status code 404 Not Found. Origin of Status Codes As a part of the HTTP 0.9 specifications, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) established HTTP status codes in 1992. Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the web and the first web browser in 1990, defined the status codes. List of Status Codes A brief overview of HTTP status codes is given below. Code Meaning Description 100 Continue Confirms the client about the arrival of the first part of the request and informs to continue with the rest of the request or ignore if the request has been fulfilled 101 Switching Protocols Informs the client about the server switching the protocols to that specified in the
Contact Support About SISTRIX About us Careers Press Contact Support SISTRIX Toolbox Blog Resources Support Login Ask SISTRIX Webinar Seminar Tutorials Free Tools Videos HomeAsk SISTRIXHow to correctly return the HTTP status code 404 for an error page How to
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correctly return the HTTP status code 404 for an error page A 404 error 404 file or directory not found page, also called an ErrorDocument 404, is, first and foremost, a page that informs the user that the requested resource does not
Error 401
exist. For example, if a user follows a link and the target page does not exist anymore, the webserver should show a 404 error page. This is not the only job of a 404 error page, though. http://www.404errorpages.com/ When configured correctly, it informs the Google-Bot if a document actually exists. To ensure this happens the way it should, it is important that a 404 error page returns the correct HTTP status code 404 - otherwise the 404 page is defective. Why should a 404-error page return the correct HTTP status code and not be redirected, for example? ContentsHow do I return the correct HTTP status code for a 404 error page?.htaccess https://www.sistrix.com/ask-sistrix/onpage-optimisation/http-status-code/4xx-client-error-404-error-page/how-to-correctly-return-the-http-status-code-404-for-an-error-page/ and Apache webserver – correctly configuring the error pageWordPress CMS – correctly configuring the error pageWhy is it important for error pages to return the correct HTTP status code?Video Explanation by Matt Cutts / Google on this topicHow does Google handle "not found" pages that don't return a 404?Additional information about this topic:Do you like this post? How do I return the correct HTTP status code for a 404 error page? Webservers or the Content-Management-System (CMS) in use are often not set up correctly. This leads to the error page either returning the HTTP status code 200 (OK) or to a 301-redirect which sends the user as well as Google-Bot to another page. In both cases you would consider this to be a defective 404 page or a so-called soft 404 error. In this article, we will discuss the correct configuration of a 404 error page with the appropriate HTTP status code 404. We will actually differentiate between two use-cases: static 404 error page through the use of the Apache webserver and the .htaccess file using the WordPress CMS and the 404.php file in the theme-directory .htaccess and Apache webserver – correctly configuring the error page Regardless of whether you use .html or .php files for your website or if you stick to a directory structure –
content and a result code. The result code is not shown to the user but processed by the program accessing the server ("client"). The result code is a code for the client telling http://gsitecrawler.com/articles/error-404-200.asp it the status of the content that it just sent There are several result codes, but the ones we'll look at now are "404" and "200". The result code 200 means that the page the client wanted is available and shown in the content. The result code 404 means that the page the client wanted is not available, but it can also return content (eg. a page saying "sorry, couldn't find your page"). Usually a normal not found web page returns 200, saying all is ok. Background - custom error pages Anyone who has ever looked for something special on the web will be able to tell stories of the "URL that got away" -- the link to the page with exactly the content you were looking for, that just doesn't work anymore. More and more, as people update their sites, URLs aren't valid for that long of a time - people moving from "Frontpage" 404 file not to a content-management-system (CMS), or from one CMS to another. When they move, the old links usually become invalid, inside of the new site it shows the correct links, but coming from the outside it'll more than likely have old, obsolete links. So you find the page you were looking for -- and then just get a boring "404 - not found.". The people making these sites know that this is always going to happen sooner or later. So what can you do? Many sites now have custom error pages, so instead of landing on a plain "nothing found" page, you'll land on a page with lots of information about the sites, other links that might be interesting or similar to the link you were looking for. These custom error pages are a good thing - they help get people back on track, possibly helping them find the page they were originally looking for (or at least something similar). Sometimes, instead of an error page it will just redirect you to the starting page of the site, letting you go from there. However, these custom error pages need to be set up correctly in order to work according to the web standards. A lot of sites just redirect errors to the error page, and the error page then returns ... result code "200" - meaning "I f