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Websites are complex things and what you do on your website will always affect what the search engines serve back to people searching for information.
But did you know that those changes you made to your site over the weekend could cause you to be sending your visitors away – to your competitors? One of the most common ways you could be doing this is failing to have a 404 page.
So what is a 404 page? This is a web page which usually appears whenever a web browser is asked to find an unrecognised file. Usually it happens after the visitor clicks on one of the following:
1. A link within the website that is broken for whatever reason.
2. A link on an external site that may have been incorrectly coded by the webmaster or you may have changed the destination file on your site making the old link invalid, perhaps you moved or removed a web page.
3. The visitor may have typed in a mis-spelt or incorrect ending, such as ‘www.domain.com/wrongname’.
Click here to see an example of the 404 page on the BBC website. You can find out if your website has a 404 page by typing something like: www.yourwebsite.com/error (in a browser) and see if a 404 page comes up. If all you get is a standard browser error page saying something like ‘this page does not exist’ or ‘not found’ (such as this example) then you need to get one made – as soon as possible – before all your visitors hit the back button, return to the search results and go to your competitors’ websites! A properly designed 404 page should do the job of retaining the visitor on your website and encouraging the visitor to continue browsing it.
Smashing Magazine has some good examples of 404 pages, showing you can be as creative as you want:
404 Error Pages, One More Time
About Sam
Sam McArthur is an internet marketing consultant with 12 years in the industry. She helps professional service businesses with their internet marketing strategy, helping them to see significant results from their online marketing activities, particularly within the search engines. She also consults on the latest internet tools, technology and best practice techniques.
