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Increase Your Traffic by Recovering Your Lost Visitors
Error messages have numerous causes, such as misspellings, outdated links or internal server errors. When an error is encountered, your server will display specific generic error pages according to the error. These error pages are not only dead ends, but they are also very frustrating for your potential visitors. When your visitors mistype your web address or click on an outdated link and receive the dreaded error page, they'll most-likely click on their back button and never return. However, you can recover a majority of your lost visitors simply by taking the time to create some customized, user friendly error pages. As servers run different types of software and do not If you're not sure what type of server you're on, visit the following
web address to find out: Before we begin, keep in mind, editing your server files is serious business. Even one small typographical error can wreak havoc -- make sure you make a backup copy of any file you're planning to edit. Guidelines for creating your error pages: 1. Create your error pages in standard HTML -- just as you would create any other web page for your site. 2. Don't alarm your visitors. Never include the word "ERROR"
in large, bold text. Your visitors may immediately become alarmed
and think they've done something to cause the error. Instead, be
apologetic and encourage your visitors to click on the navigational
links to locate additional resources and 3. Your error pages should look just like the rest of your web pages. Each error page should contain good navigational links, a search feature, and provide information in regard to the specific error they received. If you'd like to see an example error page, visit the Once you've created an error page, save it as the error Here are some of the more common errors: 400 Bad Request Once you've created your pages, you'll need to access your server via FTP and create a new folder called "errordocs" where you store your HTML files. Upload your new error documents into your new folder. Your next step will be to locate your .htaccess file and download
it to your computer. (If you use FrontPage to publish your web pages,
you cannot customize the .htaccess file, as FrontPage uses the .htaccess
file. Editing the file may cause errors in your configuration.)
The .htaccess file should be located on your server where you store
your HTML If the .htaccess file isn't visible, you can create one Once you've downloaded your .htaccess file, open it within a plain text editor, such as Note Pad, and add the following lines below any other text that may be present: ErrorDocument 400 /errordocs/400.html If you're creating your own .htaccess file, open a plain When typing in the information, make certain you type it exactly as it appears above. You can include the error documents of your choice. Once the file is complete, save it as .htaccess and upload it to your server, via FTP in ASCII mode, where you store your HTML files. For additional information on File Transfer Protocol (FTP) you
may visit: If you have a Windows operating system, you will be unable to save the file as .htaccess. You'll need to save it as htaccess.txt. Once you upload the file to your server, you can rename it to .htaccess. That's all there is to it. When your visitors click on an Creating your own custom error pages is well worth the time and effort, as they will enable you to recover an unlimited number of your visitors. If you follow this step by step guide, you can have your pages up and running in no time. Copyright © Shelley Lowery 2003. About the Author: Shelley Lowery is the author of Web Design Mastery - An in- depth
guide to professional web design. And, Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for a free subscription
to Etips and receive a free copy of the highly acclaimed ebook,
"Killer Internet Marketing |
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