404 filenotfound

filenotfound 404 importance

[andy_boyd]

Hello,

I inherited a site which was built using MS Frontpage. It was originally hosted on a major host who will remain nameless, but had to change hosts.

This site seems to have a problem with filenotfound, ie. it is the second, yes second, most popular page on the site. I am currently addressing this issue and hope to have it resolved in the not too distant future.

As this is an ecommerce site, can you give me an indication of the importance in fixing this problem. I know filenotfound is a problem area but for curiosity's sake, how will it affect sales etc?

Thank you for your response, it is very much appreciated. Later,

Andy B

[Birdman]

You may want to check the links pointing to that page and make sure they are exactly the same as the filename on the server.

Some servers file requests are case sensitive, some are not.

[jdMorgan]

andy_boyd,

Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]!

It's very important - I certainly wouldn't deal with a company whose site was broken!

Try Xenu LinkSleuth to check your internal links - a freeware download easily found with a search. Also, check your logs to see if the problem is a link on someone else's web site. In this case, you may want to set up a 301 redirect to point the bad URL request to a good page.

Jim

[universalis]

I was in a similar situation when I took over a small web site for a charity - there were eight times as many 404 errors as pageviews! I set up a custom 404 page which used a simple perl script that emailed me every time an error was produced.

15 minutes and several hundred emails later, I was able to identify the problem: each page loaded some javascript which in turn attempted to preload eight images which did not exist - thus producing eight 404 error codes. Such a problem is often invisible to the user as the page loads correctly.

So, check out your javascript files and see if there is something going on there.

Hope this helps!

[awcabot]

Before trying to fix the root of the problem, which will take some time, I advise you to create a friendly and otherwise useful 404 page, which will take less time than fixing all instances of 404.

Whilst you are fixing the root problem, your visitors instead of getting a page that simply tells them that the requested page could not be found, should have the possibility of going to the search engine (there is one, isn't there?), notifying the webmaster of a problem or start again from the homepage. This will give a friendlier appearance to the site whilst you are trying to fix the links.

And if you can not think of sending them any useful information, at least post a joke.

You may also want to see [plinko.net...] where they have a collection of interesting 404 pages.

[andy_boyd]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. My first move has been in redesigning the 404 page. I put on a directory of products and a search field. As a result of this our filenotfound.html page has dropped significantly as a point of exit. This has helped to make the site more sticky and professional, even if a user gets a 404.

I am also going through each individual page and checking for errors of every sort, and awcabot you are definitely right in saying it'll take a while. But the longer term benefits far out-weigh short term loss.

My short to medium term goal is to eliminate the need for a 404, ie. ensure all links function properly. However, I do have nearly 600 static html pages to go through!

The plan is that having the entire site fully operational so the average customer can get from their entry point to the checkout without encountering any broken links / pics. I think this works on the subconcious level, no broken links etc gives a sense of stability and reliability. (For example, Amazon don't have broken links, if they did I would make a pretty sure guess it would have a negative impact) This should then convert into more sales, or at worst more leads to work on.

After that, I will work on the product pages, building up accurate descriptions, improving pictures of the products... don't think it'll ever stop!

Let me know what you think of this 'plan'. Thanks again.