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Preventing Lost Visitors
After Updating Your Web Site
Q:
I’ve finally gotten around
to developing a new Web site. My Webmaster has created some new pages, and
moved information to different pages based on some of your earlier advice. But
that raises a question. What happens if a search engine sends someone to one of
my old Web pages and that information is no longer there?
. . . . .
. . . . . . .
A.
Congratulations on updating your Web site. No doubt it’s a
relief to have that job behind you!
The good
news is that new site visitors who first find your homepage will
find current information to help them decide to call you or
visit your place of business. The bad news is that anyone
searching for your goods and services through a search engine
may be quite frustrated when they can’t link to the right
information.
To
understand why those links no longer work, you’ll need to
understand how your information is indexed by the crawlers.When
a search engine crawls your Web site, it picks up keywords and
phrases in conjunction with specific pages, then indexes that
information in preparation for the searcher who is looking for
your information.
One factor
that determines the frequency your site gets crawled is whether
or not the search engine has previously determined that your
site gets updated on a regular basis. If it’s been a very long
time since your site was changed, then it’s probably been a long
time since your information was crawled.
This results in two problems. First, that
you have dropped closer to the end of the results lists, and
second, that when you do get included in the results, the
accompanying link will produce an error – because you have moved
that information on your site.
404-File Not FoundYou’ve
seen this error yourself when you’ve done a search. “http 404 –
File Not Found” The reason you got that error code was because
the information you searched for probably used to be on that
page, but the page was moved to a different server, or was
removed altogether. There’s a good chance that someone will
miss your site for the same reason – your pages have been
changed and/or moved.
But there is
a way to ensure you’ll still be found. Ask your Web developer to
create a 404 error page for you. The page should look just like
your homepage or sitemap page, with all the navigation buttons
and links found on that page, but with text that reads something
like, “We’re sorry! This page has been changed or removed from
our server. Please choose any of the links on this page, or
contact us (phone and e-mail addresses).” The page’s filename
should be “404.htm” or “missing.htm” or anything similar.
Adding the Error Page to Your Site
Once the page has been created, it should be uploaded to your
Web site. Then contact your hosting company to ask them to turn
on the error code capability. Tell them the filename of the
page your Webmaster created.
Finally, if
it has been more than six months since your site was previously
updated, resubmit your Web address (URL) to the four major
search engines. (The submission page addresses can be found at
http-411.com). This will ensure your newly revised site will be
crawled and indexed with your new information. Then keep it
updated more regularly, so the crawlers will continue to index
your site on a regular basis, and visitors will always find
current information.
To see an error page for this site, link here:
www.http-411.com/404.htm .
© 2005 Trisha Torrey
Trisha Torrey, owner of IntegriMark Communications and author of http://411, has been helping businesses score on the Web since the mid-1990s. From large corporations, to non-profit organizations, to individual entrepreneurs, her advice, planning and development services have helped raise the Web marketing bar while keeping a keen eye on the bottom line.
Email questions to her at: questions@http-411.com .
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