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Adding navigation with custom '404 Error' pages

When visitors to your site misspell your URLs, or follow broken links to your site, their browser will display a ’404 Error’ page that will tell them that the page they were trying to access does not exist. At this point, they will most likely leave, rather than trying to guess how to get to their intended destination. Fortunately, there is an easy solution to this problem: create a user-friendly custom ’404 Error’ page.

Your web host should give you the option of uploading a custom ’404 Error’ page, which will be automatically displayed every time somebody tries to access a non existent URL within your domain.

You can design your custom error page using the same editor you normally use to create your regular web pages. There are a few things to take into account when designing your error page, to improve your visitors. navigation experience:

• Brand your error page with your logo and the look and feel of your site.
• Provide your visitors with a link to your main page (homepage).
• Include a link to a site map, or display links to the main sections of your site.
• Include a search box for those visitors who don’t want to take the time to navigate your site to find the information they need.

Ask your webhost or use your host.s control panel to find out the file name they are using for their 404 Error page, and then replace the HTML with the HTML code of the custom error page you designed.

To see an example of a good custom 404 error page that incorporates the guidelines outlined in this article go to Microsoft.s 404 error page: http://www.microsoft.com/404.html.