Website Re-launch and Maintaining Search Rankings - No Matter What You Do...
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You are going to find 404 errors in your logs after the re-launch. It's the Internet after all and you just never know how the heck people find your website. The best way to manage those visitors that happen to request a deleted page is through a custom 404 errors page. Implementing one is as simple as creating a web page and having your web host configure your website to use this page when a 'Page Not Found' error occurs.
The format of the 404 web page should be that of a sitemap. I don't like to alarm the visitor that they just hit an error so my message is similar to that on the sitemap, but with a short line about the page not being found. With a well laid out sitemap, the visitor should be able to locate the section of the website they were looking for without too much trouble.
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