Default page instead of "Page cannot be found"

[Richard - shoplite.com]

We often delete old pages from our site, many of which are still indexed in
search engines or elsewhere. Instead of the deadly "Page cannot be found
error", how can we get the server to point to a valid current page?

Thanks

Richard

[loren_d_c]

You can ask your hosting provider to help you setup a custom 404 (page
not found) error response for your domain. Examples of what can be done
are: print out a different error message, run a script which prints out
a custom error, redirect to your homepage, or redirect to your own
custom error page.

Some examples:
http://www.shopsite.com/lkjsdflkjsdf
http://www.proaudiosuperstore.com/lkjsldkfjlksjdflkj
http://www.bizland.com/sldfkjlskdfxcvxcv
http://www.verio.com/lkjlkjlkjlkjlkjl
http://www.lexiconn.com/kjhkjhkjhjkh
http://www.yourhost.com/kllkjlkjlkjkljklj

So I guess my point is that although it would probably be difficult to
guess which page a shopper should be sent to to avoid the error, the
error page can be made to be a little more visually appealing and
explain the error better to the shopper than the default error, and
should have links back to various areas of your site as well as contact
information so they will feel comfortable contacting you if they really
can't find what they are looking for.

-Loren



"Richard - shoplite.com" wrote:

We often delete old pages from our site, many of which are still indexed in
search engines or elsewhere. Instead of the deadly "Page cannot be found
error", how can we get the server to point to a valid current page?

Thanks

Richard

[Larry Bohen]

We sell audiobooks and eventually most of them go out-of-publication. Each
title has its own "More Info Page" and may have been indexed by Search
Engines. We keep these pages on our site and just tell the visitor that the
title is no longer available and invite them to explore our Web store. In
this way we inform the visitor about the status of the title and they don't
get an error message. Hopefully they explore our Web store and find
something they want.

"Loren" <loren_d_c@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3D882AF3.F90536BE@yahoo.com...

You can ask your hosting provider to help you setup a custom 404 (page
not found) error response for your domain. Examples of what can be done
are: print out a different error message, run a script which prints out
a custom error, redirect to your homepage, or redirect to your own
custom error page.

Some examples:
http://www.shopsite.com/lkjsdflkjsdf
http://www.proaudiosuperstore.com/lkjsldkfjlksjdflkj
http://www.bizland.com/sldfkjlskdfxcvxcv
http://www.verio.com/lkjlkjlkjlkjlkjl
http://www.lexiconn.com/kjhkjhkjhjkh
http://www.yourhost.com/kllkjlkjlkjkljklj

So I guess my point is that although it would probably be difficult to
guess which page a shopper should be sent to to avoid the error, the
error page can be made to be a little more visually appealing and
explain the error better to the shopper than the default error, and
should have links back to various areas of your site as well as contact
information so they will feel comfortable contacting you if they really
can't find what they are looking for.

-Loren



"Richard - shoplite.com" wrote:

We often delete old pages from our site, many of which are still indexed
in
search engines or elsewhere. Instead of the deadly "Page cannot be found
error", how can we get the server to point to a valid current page?

Thanks

Richard

[Richard]

Thanks guys,
Richard