404 Trick for Web Promotion

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Here is a way to turn a Web surfer's mistyped URL into a possible purchase. By changing the nasty 404 Not Found error page into a custom page that helps them find what they need, you earn accolades from your visitors, instead of a hasty exit. You also help the search engines keep you properly indexed. Burhan Khan explains how it's done.

In this article I show how to get a static looking page name for a dynamic page, how this is useful for search engine ranking, and how to create a custom 404 error page. When using this technique, you don't need any software to rewrite URLs. I use an IIS example.

Why do you need a 404 custom page? Well, what happens when someone requests a page on your site that does not exist? Have you ever noticed that some sites give you a very nice looking page when you mistype a URL, instead of that nasty 404 File Not Found? It is easy to create a 404 custom page in IIS and Apache.

Then again, there's the search engine's point of view. It is the biggest benefit to have well named pages. Most search engines, like Alta Vista and Yahoo, do not traverse pages with question marks (?) in them. Traversing such pages could cause them to enter into an infinite loop.  By converting your dynamic looking URL to a static page, every search engine will index your site. Once your website is indexed, your next job will be your website optimization (Meta tags, optimized code, etc.).

Dynamically generated pages are the only way to have a truly big site, with only few pages. However dynamic pages names are not user friendly. It is difficult for users to remember the URLs of dynamic pages. For example, www.mysite.com/product.asp?id=23 is not memorable as www.mysite.com/java_book.htm.
 

Next: Setting up IIS for custom errors >>
 

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Comments On: 404 Trick for Web Promotion

· Whenever I use the char ? in an url,like products.asp?id=2 it says:...    · I've recently started exploring the use of this myself and ran into problems with...    · Nice to see comments from you. :)I did not test it under IIS 5. I come to know...    · Hi'It seem to me a good solution and we at pcline www.pcline.co.il start working...    · <% Session("Id") = ProductId Server.Transfer("/product.asp") %>Yes but...   >>> Post your comment now!