You know how sometimes stuff is staring you in the face, but its significance fails to register until someone hits you across the head with it?
That’s how it was recently with an idea which came to me via Marlon Saunders.
I’ve had customizing my 404 “Page Not Found” messages on my list of “things-to-do-when-I-get-around-to-it”, for time immemorial, but of course, I never did get around to it! Making pretty HTML for pages that weren’t showing up for one reason or another didn’t seem that big a priority in the scheme of things.
However, I’d had nagging concerns about the amount of “lost” traffic my logs have been showing me – one of my sites, has been showing literally thousands of failed requests for the last couple of months.
There WAS a reason for this, in that I’d recently removed awhole section of the site, but the search engine results were still displaying the old links.
This meant that people were clicking on my search engine listing, but getting a 404 message. What a waste!
Whatever the reason for a 404 message showing up (could be dropped link, site down, visitor keyed in wrong address), customized 404s offer a way to keep the visitor’s interest in one capacity or another, earning you the possibility of a sale somewhere.
Having seen the light (!), I’ve chosen to make my 404s for each site (you can only have one per site) affiliate links, on the grounds that even if the site goes down, the surfer is directed somewhere useful to us both.
Even if you’re currently concentrating on your own product, it’s worth considering hooking up as an affiliate with a company whose products or services complement your own.
For instance, if you sell golf clubs, use a 404 which leads to a golfing clothing company you’re affiliated to; if you’re a web designer, have a software or peripherals 404. The choice is yours.
Preparing a customized 404 is simple. First, create a new directory (folder); let’s call ours /404error/ , within your root directory (that’s the directory where all your HTML pages go). If you’re using FrontPage, create a folder called /404error/ in your web.
Next, prepare your page and save it as an HTML document. Let’s call it /404.html. If you’re using FP, you’ll of course save this page as /404error/404.html .
You can make your page as complex or as sophisticated as you like. Just remember, your purpose is to get the surfer to click through to the affiliate link and find the real goodies, rather than close the page and go elsewhere.
To see an example of my 404 error message for Daily Internet Marketing Tips, click here;
http://www.dailyinternetmarketingtips.net/error.html
Now we have to get your page up and running.
If you have a web host who is enlightened enough to use the CP (Control Panel) interface for client site administration, uploading your 404 message one is an absolute breeze, as you simply find the section for writing 404 error messages, enter your HTML in the dialog box, submit and you’re away!
For everyone else, it’s a little more long winded, but not a problem.
If you’re using FTP, upload /404.html to your new directory /404error/ . If you’re a FP user, publish your folder /404error/
You’ll need to have your system redirect failed requests to your new page. To do this, contact your web host and ask them to redirect your 404 page errors to;
http://www.yourdomain.com/404error/404.html
…And you’re done!
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