Increase your traffic by creating a custom 404 error page

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by Possibility, Feb 11, 2008.

  1. #1
    Hey everyone, have you ever tried viewing a certain page on a website and instead got the dreaded “404 Not Found” error message? Chances are that you glanced at the URL to check for any typos and then, if none were found, you left the site with a grumble.

    Chances are that some of your website’s visitors are doing the same thing. You are losing the visitor and perhaps a potential sale. Also, an unhappy user is not likely to become a repeat visitor.

    So why let the life blood of your site (your users, of course) leave unhappy? Instead of presenting them with the standard “The requested page cannot be found…”, give them s...really have no reason not to do. So go do it!
     
    Possibility, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  2. marcette

    marcette Banned

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    #2
    Thank you :)
    404 traffic is underestimated & can be very productive.
    Remember that a 404 visitor is very suggestible to free offers & such.
     
    marcette, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  3. baumann93

    baumann93 Peon

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    #3
    You might want to go a bit further and redirect to your home page or some other page after the custom 404 is displayed for 5 seconds. This way you salvage more of the traffic you would have normally lost.
     
    baumann93, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  4. hostin4u

    hostin4u Peon

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    #4
    wats the point of gettin traffic dont it use ur bandwidth up
     
    hostin4u, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  5. Woodcs82

    Woodcs82 Well-Known Member

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    #5
    I agree, let it stay for 5 seconds or so , then redirect the traffic to the homepage.

    -C

    :cool:

     
    Woodcs82, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  6. Possibility

    Possibility Peon

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    #6
    I like that suggestion - however, the only issue that I have is that a lot of users now will be browsing with multiple tabs open, and they click a link on one tab then switch to the next one while the link loads. So if a user clicked a link that didn't exist and then switched tabs, the 404 page would show for 5 seconds and then redirect to the homepage, and when the user came back all he/she would see now would be the homepage and wouldn't know what had happened.
     
    Possibility, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  7. Tom Thumb

    Tom Thumb Notable Member

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    #7
    Some great tips . Keep em coming!
     
    Tom Thumb, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  8. baumann93

    baumann93 Peon

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    #8
    Those that browse with multiple tabs open do not remember the reason they clicked on the link anyway LOL, so it would not make any difference if they would see the page they requested or the home page. But at least you have one extra chance to interest them in your site content if you display home page instead of the "sorry, the page is not found" message.
     
    baumann93, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  9. cormac

    cormac Peon

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    #9
    You will only confuse the search engines by doing this. A 404 page should return a server 404 HTTP status code to let the search engines know its an error page.
     
    cormac, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  10. Possibility

    Possibility Peon

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    #10
    Ah yes, this is very true. 404 pages have more reasons than to just inform a human user that the page does not exist.
     
    Possibility, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  11. baumann93

    baumann93 Peon

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    #11
    I wonder what is better, to make SEs happy by making a "proper" 404 page or to get another chance with a site visitor.... :confused:
     
    baumann93, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  12. cormac

    cormac Peon

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    #12
    You really need to keep the SE's happy as its your main source of free traffic, well for most of us. Customise the 404 so that you can still bounce visitors to other pages or even onto adverts if they misspell the url or hit a deleted page.
     
    cormac, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  13. baumann93

    baumann93 Peon

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    #13
    I agree that we have to keep SEs happy. I myself am enjoying a steady stream of free SE traffic and making around 700/month from it. I just do not see any reason for overoptimization.

    SEs need fresh and unique content.... many of the high PR/high traffic sites do not even have a custom 404 page...
     
    baumann93, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  14. Possibility

    Possibility Peon

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    #14
    There is no reason why you can't keep a visitor on your site even if they hit a 404 page. As long as you include appropriate information and links, they should not be deterred.
     
    Possibility, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  15. Perry Rose

    Perry Rose Peon

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    #15
    Shouldn't a good Webmaster NOT have any error pages???

    I'm tired tonight, so maybe I am missing something here.
     
    Perry Rose, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  16. baumann93

    baumann93 Peon

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    #16
    You are missing something here LOL You forget about the type-in traffic. Visitors might make a mistake typing the page address (they spelled the domain correctly). If you do not have a 404, then the visitor will get an ugly default 404 this does not add credibility to your site.

    Cheers.
     
    baumann93, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  17. sangli1980

    sangli1980 Peon

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    #17
    Can someone please explain to me how this works... e.g. my wesite address is www abc com and someone types www acb com how does my server know that someone typed a wrong url? Or are you saying that we buy the domain acb.com and redierct the user from there?? Thanks
     
    sangli1980, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  18. Possibility

    Possibility Peon

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    #18
    The domain name has to be correct, otherwise the browser will just display a DNS error. Custom 404s only work when a user tries to access a non-existent page inside of your site. For example, if your site was abc.com, if they entered abc.com/somepagedfd.php, a custom 404 could handle that. If they entered abd.com, then that has nothing to do with your site.
     
    Possibility, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  19. sangli1980

    sangli1980 Peon

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    #19
    Cool.... thanks for that explanation, it is great to know this specially when I am developing my own website.... cheers
     
    sangli1980, Feb 12, 2008 IP
  20. MTbiker

    MTbiker Well-Known Member

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    #20
    Custom 404 pages are great for keeping people at your site once they are already there, but how can I " Increase traffic by creating a custom 404 error page" ?
     
    MTbiker, Feb 12, 2008 IP