Lost and 404 Not Found

Written by Meghan Whitmore


Continued from page 1

3) Include a list of suggested links of pages that might holdrepparttar information they are looking for, after studying your log files to see which errors are maderepparttar 132396 most.

4) If you can, have your server automatically run a spelling check onrepparttar 132397 requested URL to search for any spelling mistakes and suggest possible corrections, and make those suggestions direct links to those pages.

5) Lastly, have your error page contain a search field so as a last resort your user can search your site for what they were looking for.

“Area 404”, a website dedicated to creativity and usability of error pages, has performed what they call a “highly scientific” survey of 1375 people regardingrepparttar 132398 usability of error pages. Their survey consisted of one question:

When you encounter a 404 do you: A) Hitrepparttar 132399 back button and forget about it. B) Try to get torepparttar 132400 homepage to locate repparttar 132401 missing page. C) Write torepparttar 132402 Webmaster. D) Weep uncontrollably.

The results were: 36.92% hitrepparttar 132403 back button and forgot about it. 20.37% tried to getrepparttar 132404 to homepage to locaterepparttar 132405 missing page. Only 2.82% actually tookrepparttar 132406 time to write to repparttar 132407 Webmaster (Webmasters take note of this). And 39.88% of those surveyed said they wept uncontrollably.

What have we learned from this ultra-scientific survey? People do not like error pages! But if you can make your page catchy and helpful, you will keep people on your site.

Area 404 has their own guidelines to what makes a good 404 page. In addition torepparttar 132408 ones listed by Jakob Nielsen, they add that you could include a link to contactrepparttar 132409 Webmaster to inform them ofrepparttar 132410 error. They definitely suggest that you atrepparttar 132411 very least include a link to your homepage.

Make Sure They See Your Error Page

Sometimes you may find thatrepparttar 132412 Internet Explorer browser does not display your own homemade error page and instead insists on displaying it’s own friendly version. Though their version may be nicer to look at thanrepparttar 132413 classic “404 Not Found” page, it is not as helpful or useful for your customers as your own page, so you will want to make sure your page isrepparttar 132414 one that is displayed.

You can force Internet Explorer to stop ignoring your page and start displaying it by making sure it is greater than 512 bytes, not including graphics. At that size, IE will not ignore it and will display your page instead of its standard one. 512 bytes gives you a great deal of space to work with, which you can fill up with text onrepparttar 132415 actual page or in comments inrepparttar 132416 source code.

Examples

Ok, so we know what sort of information you should include on your error pages to make them usable for your visitors. But what creative ways can you make your 404 pages a pleasure rather than a pain? Here are some examples from Area 404:

404 Something went screwy!

I have all good intentions that you should never, ever see this page, butrepparttar 132417 best-laid schemes of mice and men oft' go astray...uh...in this case, it'srepparttar 132418 URL you were attempting to access that seems to have gone astray.

Ifrepparttar 132419 link you followed resides on foo.net, please send e-mail to example@foo.net. You can return to familiar territory by using your browser's BACK button, or start fresh atrepparttar 132420 front door and perhaps you'll find what you were looking for. www.foo.net

Of course if you just found this page because you're hooked on 404's, you'll enjoy following these other links instead: 404 Error 404 Research Lab

To see other examples of how creative 404 pages can be, either purposefully go out and look for them by mistyping URLs willy-nilly, or check out Area 404’s treasure trove of examples at http://www.plinko.net/404/area404.asp.

Redirects

Now there is an alternative to displaying an error page. If you find there is a page that is consistently getting mistyped, or if you have moved a page that you know many people will be trying to view, instead of just showing them an error page you can automatically redirect them torepparttar 132421 correct page. You can use a 404 in correlation with redirection, by having a 404 page that informs you visitor “We’re sorry, that page has moved. In a few second you will be automatically redirect torepparttar 132422 correct page.” That makes it easy for your visitors, since they just have to sit back and wait, rather than having to click links to findrepparttar 132423 new page themselves. Have that page be displayed for about 4 or 5 seconds, and then haverepparttar 132424 server send them torepparttar 132425 right page.

The HTML for redirects is simple. It will tellrepparttar 132426 server to automatically “refresh”repparttar 132427 page, but by refreshing it will bring up a different URL. Here isrepparttar 132428 code:

The “CONTENT” isrepparttar 132429 amount of seconds beforerepparttar 132430 page is refreshed. In this example, it is 5 seconds.

Conclusion: 404s CAN be fun

As you can see, there is more to error pages thanrepparttar 132431 boring, dreaded, stereotypical 404 Not Found page. Website usability extends even beyond your working pages and into repparttar 132432 realm of Pages Lost And 404 Not Found! Make it ALL work for you.

Meghan Whitmore is a professional copywriter and part of the Directory One search engine optimization and website design team. For more information, please visit: http://www.directoryone.com


Creating GIF and Jpeg Images for Your Website - How to prepare them for best results.

Written by Francisco Aloy


Continued from page 1

Once you are done withrepparttar editing, it's time to recompress and convertrepparttar 132393 images for use onrepparttar 132394 Web! Depending on your needs, resizerepparttar 132395 images to either 72 or 96 PPI and save them as GIF or Jpeg. Take your time and use many ofrepparttar 132396 Web features of your paint application; experiment to see what isrepparttar 132397 best compromise between image size and quality.

Items to consider:

High, medium or low compression.

Colors: 16, 32, 64, 128, 256

Dither/no Dither

Of course, there are more detailed works on editing images for use onrepparttar 132398 Web; this article doesn't pretend to be on par. Yet and still, by followingrepparttar 132399 simple guidelines above, you'll be able to produce some very decent images for your website.

More resources:

http://www.putertutor.net/ Super tutorial site for all things graphic.

http://www.mccannas.com/pshop/menu.htm Very well written instruction for graphics applications

http://www.websitetips.com/graphics Excellent gateway site to allrepparttar 132400 good graphic design tutorials and learning resources.

=============================================

by Francisco Aloy

(C)2004 FRancisco Aloy ============================================= Agreement reminder, not part ofrepparttar 132401 article: Please include my working hyperlink inrepparttar 132402 resource box. Remove paragraph before posting.



Francisco Aloy is the author of "Yes, I Want to Start My Internet Business Without Being SCAMMED!." He is the creator of The Newbie Business Guide. For more image editing resources, visit Mr. Aloy's Websit and look at our section on Graphic Design. http://www.newbie-business-guide.com/graphic_design.html


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