A 404 page is what is displayed
to your surfers instead of the standard "can
not find file" message that you see at many websites.
If a person has not set up their htaccess to direct
those surfers to their 404 page, they are losing clicks!
So, by utilizing a 404 page, many people gain traffic
they didn't even know they had.
Any surfer that happens to go to a bad link or is
trying to look in places like that they shouldn't
(such as your image directories) can be directed to
any place you choose. Below are a few examples of
what can be done with these surfers.
Where to send your 404 page traffic
This really depends on the situation in regards
to where the surfer is coming from. If they are
trying to find unprotected directories, chances
are they are a bit more experienced and they will
not buy anything.
This type of surfer you would want to use for something
like extra traffic generation ...such as sending
them to a toplist) Now your options are really unlimited
as to where you send your surfer.
1. Send the surfer back to your main site.
2. Send the surfer directly to a sponsor.
3. Send the surfer to a full page ad.
4. Send the surfer to your own custom 404 page.
Explanations:
1. Send the surfer back to your main site. - This
would be an option for any traffic that might find
a bad link in your coding. This would be used if
you think the surfer arriving at the 404 page is
a possible buying surfer.
2. Send the surfer directly to a sponsor.
- Again, this would be the surfer that you think
might purchase something without to much sales effort
on your behalf.
3. Send the surfer to a full page ad. - This
might be useful if you wanted to send the surfer
to your
sponsor but you did not want them to get the pop
ups off the same sponsor. By having them go to a
full page ad that you host, you have the option
of offering them other things on the no thanks link
towards the bottom of the page or even adding in
your own consoles to direct the traffic to a different
sponsor.
4. Send the surfer to your own custom 404
page. - This option is suitable for a few different
things. You can easily add a wide selection of links
on this page to capture the varied interest of the
surfers ending up there. You could use this traffic
to feed another site. If the situation is right,
you could even use this page for your own "surfer"
trap with multiple exit/entrance consoles, toplists
pop ups and so forth.
How do you set up your htaccess to make the
404 redirection work?
While this can be different depending on the hosting
services and platform they are using, the standard
Apache type set up will work just fine as explained
here: htaccess
set up
Now the question is what type of page or link
do you want to send these surfers to. Even though
I can not offer a direct recommendation through
this article, myself as well as many other fine
folks would be happy to discuss your unique situation
on the Newbie Board to help you decide which is
best for you and your sites.
So, lets start getting these pages ready to go
and again, if you have any questions at all, please
visit
the Newbie
Board and ask away.
The thread link for this project can be located by Clicking Here
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