Author's Web Site: First Business Web Site
Date Submitted: 09/09/2002
When I first started my online business, I had a handful of
pages on my web site and could care less about keeping track
of broken links, missing pages etc. I could count those
pages on my fingers, why should I worry!
As my web site grew, some pages were moved to new addresses,
others were simply deleted. People were still coming to
these pages from the search engines or my link exchange part-
ners, but on arrival all they would see is this:
Error 404 - File Not Found
By the time my business was 1 year old, I realized that I am
losing too many visitors. I had to do something, and found
a great solution for a growing and ever-changing web site.
A custom 404 page! Now whenever someone comes to a web page
on my site that doesn't exist anymore, they will see a
special page I created that will direct them to where they
want to go.
No programming skills are required to set this up, and it
will work with most hosts. Just follow these directions:
****************************************
1. Open Notepad and type in this line:
Be sure to change the URL to your own custom "File Not
Found" page. Keep it all on one line, with a space before
and after 404.
****************************************
2. Save this file as ".htaccess" and upload it to your web
server into the root directory (where your home page is
located).
****************************************
3. Use an FTP or telnet program to set the permissions to
CHMOD 644. I use WS_FTP and just right-click on the file to
use the CHMOD command. If this sounds "greek" to you,
search Google for setting file permissions.
There may be a case where you already have a file on your
server called ".htaccess". In that case you can simply add
the line in step 1 after everything else in that file.
Take a look at my HelpingFoot custom 404 page. Just type
www.helpingfoot.com/abcd (which doesn't exist) and you will
see my specially created page. I have seen some custom 404
pages that are simply a sitemap for those who got lost,
others create humorous pages. I have a combination of both
:-)
I found that my web sites get at least 10% of their traffic
from that page. Definitely was worth my efforts!
Now you do it :-)
Milana Leshinsky
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