Don't let the beautiful 404s ruin your website rankings

The 404 page is the page returned when the user enters the wrong link.

The purpose of a 404 page is to tell viewers that the page they have requested does not exist or is incorrectly linked, and to guide users to use other pages of the website instead of closing the window to leave.

$ @5 I1 L' D! {0 A) eWhen many seoers realize that 404 pages are helpful to website optimization and user experience, they look for beautiful 404 pages on the Internet to download and add them to their own websites. When using 404 pages, most seoers focus their main energy or even all their energy on the 404 page design. Everything will be ok if the page is beautiful. After uploading, they don't check the html return status. It is precisely because of this. The eyes of many webmasters are blinded by the beautiful 404 pages, and the website's inclusion has dropped. Baidu has included a large number of 404 pages, and the weight has dropped and the ranking has dropped!

& T2 _. r7 y0 S8 h% `5 M9 ^5 g* x/ TThe 404 error page was originally set to the default state by iis or apache. When the search engine accesses the website error page, it returns a 404 status code. When the user visits, it displays that the page does not exist (a representation of the 404-like code). However, when some websites have revised their websites, integrated resources, etc., many old urls have been deleted, but these urls listed on users or other websites have not been updated in time. This causes users to be directed to 404 pages when accessing these invalid urls. Under normal circumstances, users usually directly click on the red cross in the upper right corner of the page to process it. In this case, many webmasters choose to customize 404 error pages to try their best to guide this traffic to the corresponding page, either the home page, or the inside page. There is no problem in doing this, but everything has two sides. When you get this traffic, have you noticed that your website's inclusion in search engines has decreased significantly, and some keywords have even dropped in rankings?

7 ? 0 s- O( g% M$ S/ TWhen a search engine detects the wrong url of a website and returns a status code of 200 instead of a 404 status code, it will assume that the page that does not actually exist exists. Then, when a large number of erroneous URLs are detected by the search engine, a 200 status code will also be returned, which will also be regarded as existing web pages, so that the search engine will think that there are a large number of duplicate web pages. Obviously, it is easy to reduce the number of listings on the website or even downgrade the rights. No matter how you customize a 404 error page, the first important thing is to ensure that the search engine returns a 404 status code. When you write a custom 404 error page, don't rush to see the gorgeous effects. First check whether your customized 404 error page returns a 404 status code or a 200 status code. If this website is still valid, it can be tested

How to correctly set up the 404 error page:

% T$ N9 M$ C [! J4 S, T1. When existing web page content cannot be accessed due to a change in path, you can define a 404 error in iis to point to a dynamic page, and use 301 permanent redirection in the page to jump to a new address. At this time, the server will return a 301 status code.

2. Set 404 to point to a designed html textThe page returns a 404 status code at this time. Nowadays, idc providers basically provide the function of 404 settings, and you can directly upload file settings. Setting method in iis: Open iis Manager--Click on the properties of the website where you want to customize 404--Click on the custom error option--Select the 404 page--Select and open the editing properties--Set to url --Fill in/err404.html in the url--Press OK to exit and upload the completed err404.html page to the root directory of the website. Be sure to select file or default in the message type here instead of url, otherwise, a 200 status code will be returned.

3. 404 points to a dynamic page, such as error.asp. If you don't set it in the page, just the html code that returns the prompt will cause the page to return a 200 status code. This is incorrect. We can add the statement after displaying the prompt content: response.status= 404 not found, which ensures that the page returns a 404 status code.

, {' k2 Y/ C! }% z7 W4. Set the 404 error page under apache. The method to set up a 404 error page for the apache server is simple. Just add the following content to the.htaccess file, errordocument 404/notfound.php

How to achieve a good 404 page:

You can achieve the effect by changing the server default error page. Here are some suggestions that can make normal visits easy for visitors.

Philosophy followed:

; H4 B6 s" A 1 A: x# R" m- sProvide concise problem descriptions to eliminate visitors 'frustration.

" U1 l% c0 B2 w3 v+ GProvide reasonable solutions to assist visitors in achieving their visit goals。

7 P' d; g3 B/ i/ ^( YProvide a personalized and friendly interface to enhance the access experience.