Oops - Lost Another One

Have you wanted to check out a site and seen

"Page Not Found" (also known as the 404 error page)?

Bet you didn't sign-up, buy anything or bookmark it for future reference.

In fact, every time a "Page Not Found" error comes up on someone's screen, the owner of those sites should say - "Oops, I lost another one ... and it's my fault"

Sure, when your page comes up not everyone will take you up on your fantastic offer. But if they see the famous "Page Not Found" error page - you don't even have a chance to present your offer.

But ...

You can fix ALL the possibilities of having a 404 error displayed on your site easily and here's how.

1. Go into the root directory for your site and see if you have a file named ".htaccess" If you don't, you need one. If you do, you need to edit it.

2. Go to http://www.htaccesstools.com/error-document/

3. Place the url of the page you would like your visitor to see instead of the 404 error page in the box under "404 - Not Found"

4. Click the "Create .httaccess file" button and copy the code.

5. If you already have a .htaccess file in your root directory you can simply edit it, paste the code into it and save. You're done
   

6. If you don't have a .htaccess file then open your favorite text editor and paste the code into it.

7. How you save the file correctly is very important.
   
   * The file name is ".htaccess" - don't include the " but
   do include the . (period) in front of the h
   
   * You have to select "all file types" from the menu of types
   allowed in the save box that came up
   
   * You do not add any extension type to the file name - in
   other words - there is not . (period) after the file name with
   any extension type like txt or doc.




8. Upload the file you just created into your root directory

The page you choose to redirect to for the "Page Not Found" error can by any page you chose. It can be a page on your site. It can be another site. It can be an affiliate link.

After you've defined where your 404 page will send your visitors you'll know they won't see any of those error pages on your site again and they only time they might get to one is if you've redirected them to a non-existing page on someone else's site.

To Your Success,
Susan

PS To see the page I created for those nasty 404 error pages go to:
http://www.friendswhocare.us/notfound.html and look at the actual url in the address bar.