The Easiest Way Webmasters Can Lose Money...

[Lee]

Is actually a really simple thing to solve and, although it may sound daunting to us at first, it really isnt as hard as it sounds to implement, what am i talking about? .htaccess files specifically, 404 redirects.

No matter what type of site we put online there are always going to be surfers who try to 'browse' your directory structures for example, say you have the following site: http://www.domain.com/sites/twinks/index.html

Some surfers, will actually strip off the /twinks/ part of the url or, go one step further and try to find your image directories so they can avoid seeing your ads alltogether.

The easiest way to stop this is by implementing a .htaccess file which contains the following:

Options -Indexes
ErrorDocument 403 http://www.url.com
ErrorDocument 404 http://www.url.com

What this will do, is redirect any surfers that hit a directory on your server or, a page that doesnt exist and push them to whatever url you have set in the 'www.url.com' section of the file.

To make a .htaccess file simple open up notepad, copy and paste the 3 lines i posted above in to it and save it as .htaccess (notice the period comes before not after the file name!) then, upload this file to your domain root and you are all set.

Now that you know how to set a .htaccess file up, lets take a look at some things you can use this new found traffic on.

1. Send it to your sites index page.

If you have a complex site, sending your surfers directly to your sites index page is probably going to be the easiest way to ensure that you hold on to them and, allow them to find what they are looking again.

2. Send it to a page of ads.

Much like paysites do when you click on the 'members' links and dont have a working username and password, fill a page with your top converting sponsors link codes and some banners and see how well the 404 traffic works for you.

3. Send it to your hub site.

If youhave multiple sites, you may like to send all of your 404 traffic to a completely different domain where you can start the filtering process anew thus, turning relatively low quality traffic, in to target surfer traffic.

4. Send it to a 'fake' 404 not found page.

Some of the best 404 pages i have used in th last 5 years have been ones that replicate the structure of a genuine 'not found' page or, maybe even an open directory structure, instead of the links on this page going to genuine directories on your domain however, have them link direct to a sponsor or, to a hub site, maybe even some free programs like live chat upsells or, AEBNs movie theatres.

By not having a .htaccess file in place that can properly handle your 404 traffic, you are not only losing potential customers, you are losing sales. As i mentioned a couple of days ago, utilize all the traffic you can going to and, from your sites, 404 traffic is basically 'found' traffic and, found traffic can be just as productive as purchased traffic

Regards,

Lee

[davespeedoevans]

Lee,

Thanks again for a great post.

I had made up my 401, 403 and 404 error page redirects about 3 weeks ago but other things have cropped up so didn't get implemented yet.

Your post has made me pull my finger out and will be up in the next couple of hours.

I've only been on this board for a couple of weeks and so far I'm loving it - tonnes of info and great information posts.

I'm in the process of moving but once I'm settled I'll put up some posts on my traffic trials - been submitting a lot to MGP's lately and after 6 weeks of submitting I'm not about to retire - but it is doing well enough that I've got another months galleries in the works.

Thanks for your work Lee.

[gaystoryman]

I have used that htaccess for a bit, but something has come up which makes me ask this question, not sure if anyone has an answer though.

In adding a google sitemap, you need to have it verified by google in the api section.. and when using that htaccess redirect google comes back with unable to verify due to an error in 404 claiming its receiving a 200 code when it shouldn't... so I am wondering this..

1. Could google be penalizing sites with the htaccess redirect?
2. What 404 header info is required to perhaps use a custome 404 redirect that would pass this verify feature of the google xml sitemap?

[robin]

I have used that htaccess for a bit, but something has come up which makes me ask this question, not sure if anyone has an answer though.

In adding a google sitemap, you need to have it verified by google in the api section.. and when using that htaccess redirect google comes back with unable to verify due to an error in 404 claiming its receiving a 200 code when it shouldn't... so I am wondering this..

1. Could google be penalizing sites with the htaccess redirect?
2. What 404 header info is required to perhaps use a custome 404 redirect that would pass this verify feature of the google xml sitemap?

htaccess redirects to a custom 404 error page is pretty much a recommended standard. Also google has a custom 404 error page, (very simple one). So I can't see them penalizing sites for doing that.

If it was to redirect to another domain though that might be different.