OnTheNetDollars.com

A 404 error is presented to the user. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.

A 404 error is what you get when you look for a page on a website that does not exist. It may have been there once upon a time, but the website owner may have moved it or changed the name. The page will normally look like the image to your right.

On a static website (a website that consists of set pages) if there is nothing in place for these ‘missing’ or ‘moved’ pages the user will have no option but to click their back button or try someone else’s website for the information they were looking for.

If you use Wordpress on your site (which creates a non-static website) this should not be a problem as if what is typed into the browser does not have a page then Wordpress automatically re-directs you to a 404 error message. You can see what I mean by visiting this link http://www.onthenetdollars.com/my-404-error-message (it opens in a new window so you will not loose your place) which is not a real page on my site. Any pages visited on my site that do not exist will look like this & I can change it any time I like through Wordpress or in my html editor.

If your website is static there are some scripts available that will ebable you to create a 404 error message of some description. I use and highly recommend ScriptSmart as there are lots of other cool little scripts included for a very reasonable price. ScriptSmart will also send you an e-mail telling you what page the user went to, which is useful in many ways. One of which is that you coul create a page for that url with related information on to keep people from leaving your site.

Some hosting companies let you customise your 404 page and upload it to your server, but you need to check with them ans ensure you use the right format for them to serve it when necessary.

If you are using Wordpress and would like to be informed of the url’s people are visiting on your site there is a handy plugin called 404 Notifier that you can download from the developer’s site here.