http 404 error – how to get around them?

It is always happening, yet many people neglect it. Sometimes, have you wonder why you get a http 404 error on some websites?

A very simple explanation. When you make a webpage and it is no longer available, this error will happen. Do you know that some search engines still display your old webpages (although they are no longer available) and when someone who may be interested in your website click on it, http 404 error will happen and YOU CANNOT CHANGE THIS FACT!!

Many people will just click away and continue your browsing with other websites. You will be losing a lot of traffic to your website if you do NOTHING. Traffic is important as it basically means that people are interested in your website and if it is interesting, they might even subscribe to it or refer more people to your website.

So why waste it? The fact is that many people do not know how the error comes about and how it can be redirected.

First, some information on these errors: -

http error 400 – Bad Request

http error 401 – Authorisation required

http error 403 – Forbidden

http error 404 – Wrong Page

http error 500 – Internal Server Error

Ok.. I am using my website hosting company, VodaHost as an example. And I am using CPANEL to show you how these websites can be redirected in a few minutes.

BTW, it is important to find a good hosting company. Believe me,  I have done many websites over the years (most of them are free) and I can tell you, vodahost provides one of the best service ever.

Imagine this, I am living in the sunny Singapore and they are worlds apart and still I got a call from them at lunch time (Singapore time) to ask me if I have any problem with their services and invite me to join their forum if I am interested.

That, I call a GOOD customer service. I have been in Service Line for many years and I think their boss really care about their customers (although I believe one part of the call is to verify if I am really the guy who bought the hosting package – good for us as they are taking pro-active measures to prevent fraud).

ok..ok.. back to my topic..

How to do it in CPANEL (I am using CPANEL by VodaHost).

  1. If you are in the main menu, locate a icon with something like “error pages”
  2. Click on the icon. Once inside, you may see those errors I mentioned earlier.
  3. Click on 404 (most common error) and you will come to a blank page with some icon buttons that you can insert in the blank pages to show URL information, Browser information and etc…
  4. Don’t do that. Instead, you can cut and paste this code: -

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Your Website Title</title>
<meta name=”MSSmartTagsPreventParsing” content=”TRUE”>
<META NAME=”generator” CONTENT=”NoteTab Pro”>
<META HTTP-EQUIV=REFRESH CONTENT=”5;URL=http://www.yourwebsitename.com”>
</HEAD>
<BODY>

<center>
<font face=”verdana, arial”>
<h2>Some message you want to put to inform the user that they are lost?</h2>

<h3>We’ll return to you our Home Page<br>
and you can try again from there</h3>
</font>
</center>

</BODY>
</HTML>

Save this page (normally as a 403.shtml file) and you’re done! But do you know what you have done?

Basically, you put a 5 secs delay (CONTENT=”5) before it “jump” to your preferred website (normally, your main page).

Now, all traffic will be redirected to your website…

Hope that this is useful to you…

PS: I personally recommend VodaHost to anyone. BTW, I already have 2 websites with them. More to come.. :)

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5 Comments to “http 404 error – how to get around them?”

  1. RJ Heard 9 November 2007 at 6:43 pm #

    how do i just get around a 403 error

  2. joeteh 10 November 2007 at 4:47 am #

    Hi, RJ,

    The 403 error will always be there once search engines or etc has registered that page (and is no longer available).

    My method is to get around it by ensuring that anyone that goes to a webpage that is not available, it will direct it to a webpage of your choice.

    Of course, I am demonstrating it based on VodaHost that has a CPanel and a function for error pages (that can be saved as SHTML).

    Haha, my technical is not strong here on how a website without CPanel can be done. Will let you know if I find out… :)

  3. RS 17 February 2009 at 11:51 am #

    How do i get around and see what is on a error 404 web page?

  4. Sal Joki 25 November 2011 at 8:11 am #

    Generally I don’t learn article on blogs, however I would like to say that this write-up very pressured me to check out and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thank you, very nice post.

  5. Nauka Jazdy Opole 30 November 2011 at 4:03 am #

    Fajny blog. Pozdrawiam


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