SEO Tycoon

**Xtreme2damax** · 01-28-2009, 10:37 PM

I think I may be on track to figuring out what might be hurting my search engine ranking and traffic..

When I look at AWstats in my Cpanel, I notice a lot of hits on 404 pages, meaning the page is no longer there, I also get a substantial amount of hits on 403 and/or redirect pages..

Just browsing the site normally won't reveal this, but all I can think is visitors are following a link from search engines to my site that either no longer exists or has moved.

However I don't know what these "dead" links are on search engines that give the 404, 403 and redirect...

Is there a way I can fix this so users are brought to the correct location, and not hitting the 404 and 403 pages which are due to outdated or broken links on search engines for pages that have moved or no longer exist??

**Decaf** · 01-29-2009, 12:03 AM

Create an htaccess file that sends the errors to the main page.

Code:

ErrorDocument 403 index.php
ErrorDocument 404 index.php
ErrorDocument 408 index.php
ErrorDocument 500 index.php

**Xtreme2damax** · 01-29-2009, 12:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Decaf

Create an htaccess file that sends the errors to the main page.

Code:

ErrorDocument 403 index.php
ErrorDocument 404 index.php
ErrorDocument 408 index.php
ErrorDocument 500 index.php

Does that go in the root of my hosting account, the sites root directory?

**chrishirst** · 01-29-2009, 03:37 AM

Do NOT simply send "error" pages to the site root. It will cause FAR more problems if it is images or script files that are "missing"

Look at your logs, it will tell you what the URI is that errors out. It may be something as simple as you have no favicon in the root directory and browsers are requesting it.

NEVER EVER just cover up errors, you could be storing up far more trouble than you wish for.

**Xtreme2damax** · 01-29-2009, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrishirst

Do NOT simply send "error" pages to the site root. It will cause FAR more problems if it is images or script files that are "missing"

Look at your logs, it will tell you what the URI is that errors out. It may be something as simple as you have no favicon in the root directory and browsers are requesting it.

NEVER EVER just cover up errors, you could be storing up far more trouble than you wish for.

Then if it's missing pages that are no longer there, or the url is no longer valid, how do you suggest I fix that?

I closed a forum down that wasn't getting any traffic, deleted a blog, and have also enabled/disabled an SEO Furl modification (Minerva) for IPB due to a bug, but recently found a fix and enabled the SEO Furl modification again..

So a lot of links on Google and other search engines are probably no longer valid and bring visitors to the wrong locations..

I also converted to IPB about a month or two ago from Mybb. I suppose you can say my forum/website is an SEO nightmare..

**chrishirst** · 01-29-2009, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Then if it's missing pages that are no longer there, or the url is no longer valid, how do you suggest I fix that?

use .htaccess to redirect to the new URIs and have a REAL custom 404 page that actually returns a 404 status. Using the index means that your "errors" will very likely return a 200 status and the old URIs will still exist as duplicates of the "home" page.

**Xtreme2damax** · 01-29-2009, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrishirst

use .htaccess to redirect to the new URIs and have a REAL custom 404 page that actually returns a 404 status. Using the index means that your "errors" will very likely return a 200 status and the old URIs will still exist as duplicates of the "home" page.

To be honest I don't know how to set up a custom 404 error page, also what would I put in the .htaccess file and would the file go in the root directory of the site?

**chrishirst** · 01-29-2009, 01:30 PM

Yes the .htaccess goes in the root
The setup is exactly as Decaf posted but instead of index.php, set it to whatever_the404_page_is.ext.

If it is a scripted page add

PHP Code:


			
<?php
header("Status: 404 Not Found");
?>

to the end of the page.

**Xtreme2damax** · 01-29-2009, 01:51 PM

Now the problem remains with setting up an actual 404 or error page..

Does anyone have a pre-made template for this that I can edit to fit the needs for my site?

Also in the error page, do I add url to the index of my website?

**chrishirst** · 01-29-2009, 02:23 PM

http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/custom404.shtml

here's one of mine -> http://www.modtalk.co.uk/nowt/

**Xtreme2damax** · 01-29-2009, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrishirst

http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/custom404.shtml

here's one of mine -> http://www.modtalk.co.uk/nowt/

I hope you don't mind, but I borrowed the text and phrase from your error page. I just wanted to throw something up temporarily, however I plan on completely customizing it for my site when I'm up to the task.

So it is likely to change, as well as the text/phrase I borrowed from your error page.

It's a very basic design for now, I had to reference html tutorials for most of it, so here it is:

http://www.xtemu.com/404.shtml

**Xtreme2damax** · 04:05 PM

After creating a custom 403 and 404 error page, I'm getting a bit more traffic and new registrations on my forum. Also page impressions on adsense have gone up quite a bit as well, page impressions were barely above 400 - 500 daily and now they are 1,000 - 2,000+ impressions daily.

I have some questions for customizing error pages:

1. Is there any certain guidelines or techniques of how an error page should be customized, any do's or don'ts when customizing/creating error pages?

2. Can links to important sections or resources in addition to a link to the homepage, be added in error pages?

3. Is it a no-no to have any form of redirect on an error page, such as setting the error page up to auto-redirect to the homepage after 5 seconds?

Any other things I should know when customizing/creating my error pages?

**chrishirst** · 02-05-2009, 08:15 AM

1/ No. Just make it work for the visitors and ensure it returns a 404 status.

2/ pretty much essential. It's just another page on your site create as such.

3/ Create it as any other page on your site and you don't need to