Weebly404 Not Found



If it is not to be found on that page then you can also go back to the previous page and look for the correct link there. But if it so happens that this method is also successful and you eventually end up back on the homepage, then move onto the next tip.

You know the page: you click on a link, but instead of getting the site you want, an error pops up indicating that the requested page is not available. Something along the lines of '404 Not Found'. A 404 error is the standardised HTTP status code. The message is sent from the web server of an online client, to the web browser (usually the client) that sent the HTTP request. The browser then displays this error code.

Check out the Quality of the published Blog posts and page. Search engines do not like repeated submissions of the same pages. The objective of search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to increase web visitor counts by ranking quite high in the results of searches using the most appropriate keywords describing the content of your site. Something along the lines of '404 Not Found'. A 404 error is the standardized HTTP status code. The message is sent from the webserver of an online presence, to the web browser (usually the client) that sent the HTTP request. The browser then displays this error code.

Links that don’t lead anywhere are known as 'dead links' or 'broken links'. The HTTP status code 404 is often referred to as 'error 404', 'HTTP 404', or '404 code'.

We’ve gathered information on error messages and will show you how to create your very own 404 page.

How does a '404 error' come about?

The typical trigger for an error 404 message is when website content has been removed or moved to another URL. There are also other reasons why an error message could appear. These include:

  • The URL or its content (such as files or images) was either deleted or moved (without adjusting any internal links accordingly)
  • The URL was writtenincorrectly (during the creation process or a redesign), linkedincorrectly, or typed into the browser incorrectly
  • The server responsible for the website is not running or the connection is broken
  • The requested domain name can’t be converted to an IP by the domain name system (DNS)
  • The entered domain name doesn’t exist (anymore)

Dead links are often left for long periods of time since operators have no idea that the linked content has been deleted or moved. Many websites still appear in the search engineresults pages (SERPs) even though they aren’t available online anymore (or at least not at the specified URL). Other linked websites such as blogs, news portals, etc. are often not informed that the site has been removed or can now be found under a new URL. Many website operators don’t check their external links regularly and therefore a functioning link could easily become a dead one.

How to fix the error '404 Not Found'

A 404 error is rarely a reason to celebrate. At the end of the day, the website’s visitors have not found the content that they were looking for. However the appearance of a 404 page does not necessarily mean that the desired information is not available at all. In many cases, the solution to the original error is easily found and the visitor can be quickly directed to the web page that they were originally looking for. So how exactly can you go about achieving a 404 error fix? Our advice would be to try out these potential solutions (in the order that they are listed):

  • Reload the page: It might be that the error 404 has appeared for the simple reason that the page did not load properly. This can be checked quite easily by clicking on the ‘Refresh’ button in your browser or also by pressing the F5 button.
  • Check the URL: Regardless of whether you have entered the URL address manually or have been directed via a link, it could be that a mistake has been made. For this reason you should check the specified path of the website. It could be that either you, or the person who entered the link, has mistyped something. Apart from spelling mistakes, it could also be that forward slashes have been left out or misplaced. But bear in mind that this can only really be checked with ‘clean’ URLs, as they contain unreadable words instead of incomprehensible abbreviations, letters, numbers, and symbols.
  • Go back through the directory levels: For example, if a URL of the following structure example.com/Directory1/Directory2/Directory3 causes a 404 error page, then you can always go back to the previous directory level (in this example: example.com/Directory1/Directory2) in order to check whether the desired page is linked there. All you need to do is clear the last directory in the URL. The link for the page you are looking for should be visible on the previous page. If it is not to be found on that page then you can also go back to the previous page and look for the correct link there. But if it so happens that this method is also successful and you eventually end up back on the homepage, then move onto the next tip.
  • Use the website’s search function: Many websites offer a search function as part of their homepage. By entering one or several keywords, it can help you find the specific page that you are looking for.
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  • Use a search engine: You also have the possibility of using the website of your choice to find a website. As long as the desired site exists, you should be able to find it by entering the website domain and/or a keyword transcription of the subject matter.
  • Delete the browser cache and cookies: If you can access the website from another device, and the HTTP 404 error only seems to appear on a certain computer, then the problem could lie with your browser. Therefore, you should delete the browser cache as well as all cookies for this site, and this may then finally allow you to access the page.
  • Contact the website: If none of the abovementioned tips have been successful then the only remaining option may be to get in touch with the person/people responsible for the website. Contact information can usually be found in the website’s masthead or else on a specific ‘Contact Us’ page. The operators of the website should be able to provide information as to whether the page you are looking for actually exists. It might be the case that the page in question has been moved to a new URL, and in this scenario you will be doing the website operator a big favour. They can then carry out a 404 error fix by introducing a domain redirect, which will automatically direct users from the old web page to the current one.

HTTP 404 errors can damage a website’s ranking and reputation

Search engines, such as Google and Bing, look down on sites if they have many 404 errors. Once the crawlers have established that many requests are being met with 404 codes, it presumes the site isn’t very well maintained. Dead links affect a site’s ranking and Google can decrease its placement in the SERPs or even stop indexing it if there are too many 404 error pages occurring. This may result in a considerable decrease in visitor numbers for the website.

The visitor loses trust in the site if it’s full of broken links or if the landing page (the page that is accessed from the search engine results) is dead. If the site is experiencing this problem regularly, many users won’t take the trouble to continue to search since they aren’t even sure if the desired content is still available.

Identifing 404 errors on your own website

It’s important for website operators to prevent HTTP 404 pages. This applies to internal 404 error pages on their own website as well as external 404 error pages on other sites. There are numerous free tools available to help you find these broken links more easily. Three of the best and most well-known are:

  • Google Search Console (formerly known as 'Google Webmaster Tools'): if you already have a Google account and have registered your website there, you should make use of the Google Search Console option. Any 404 errors found by the Google crawler are displayed in the web tool and can also be marked as corrected here too. Additional functions enable you to find errors in robots.txt files and use crawling statistics to work out how often your site has been crawled by Google crawlers.
  • Dead Link Checker: one of the simplest and fastest tools for finding both internally and externally linked 404 pages is the Dead Link Checker. With this web app you simply enter the URL of the site you want to inspect and then start the check. Here you have the choice of checking a single web page or a whole site. The app lists all the tracked error pages with status codes and URL.
  • W3C Link Checker: this online tool from World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is particularly detailed when it comes to testing individual website pages, so the process takes longer to verify links than with other websites. The W3C Link Checker works just like the Dead Link Checker: you enter the URL and let the tool do the rest. It’s also possible to add further details

In 2008, a study carried out by the telecommunications arm of the Royal Mail found that '404' became a slang synonym for 'clueless' in the United Kingdom.

Creating a 404 error page

Some content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal automatically generate a 404 error page when a website’s URL can’t be found. The HTTP 404 page is just a simple standard error message, but most of them can be personalised using special CMS extensions.

If your CMS doesn’t give you the option of creating or changing your 404 page, or if your website is solely based on HTML, PHP, etc., it will prove a bit more complicated. You can create an error page as follows:

  • Create an error page ('404.html' or '404.php') in the root directory (if there isn’t an existing one already).
  • Open the .htaccess file (or create one if needed) in the root directory, enter this in 'ErrorDocument 404 /404.html' and save the change. The error page will be generated with this code.
  • To see if it’s worked, try to access an unavailable webpage and hopefully the error 404 message should appear in the browser.

Why should you personalise your 404 error page?

Having a standard 404 error page is better than having none at all, although a customised page is more preferred for several reasons. On the one hand, you can be sure that visitors receive an accurate HTTP status code: for example, if the requested content is no longer present on the site, this should be conveyed with the '410 Gone' message. The visitor then knows that this content has been permanently deleted.

On the other hand, you can provide a specially-designed error page containing related links (i.e. links to your homepage or subpages where the content overlaps that which the visitor originally requested). You could even add a search function for your website. By taking these extra measures and providing incentives, you might be able to prevent visitors from leaving your site straight after seeing the 404 code.

With a creative 404 message you may even find that visitors are more forgiving. Naturally they will be disappointed at not finding content they were promised, but an original or funny 404 page could make up for it. If done properly, error pages do have some potential.

Make sure that the design of the error message matches the style of your website and you already have the foundation for a good 404 error page. If you let visitors know in a funny and light-hearted way that your content isn’t available, you’ll hopefully get a smile out of them and they won’t hold a grudge. For inspiration, check out our article on cool and creative 404 pages.

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Last Updated 03/08/2018
Today I have a a technical post for you.
Not technical in the sense that you need any technical skills though - queue sighs of relief.
​I’m going to break down how to fix your broken links & 404 errors without needing any technical skills at all.
YAAY.

Before I begin, this post applies to Weebly Users.
My website is hosted & built through Weebly so I will base the post off this platform.
Having said that, the first half of this post will be relevant if you use Wordpress, Squarespace, Wix or any other platform so if you are not sure what a 404 error is it is still worth reading through.

This post covers:

What Are Broken Links & 404 Errors?
Why Are Broken Links & 404 Errors Important To Fix
How To Identify Broken Links & 404 Errors On My Site?
How To Fix Broken Links & 404 Errors In Weebly
How To Set Up A Custom Weebly 404 Page

What Are Broken Links & 404 Errors?
Very simply this is any link that a user might follow on your website which takes them to a 404 error page instead of the page they were looking for.
This will happen anytime you update or optimise a url.
For example, say this post about getting a hobby was live on your website:

OLD URL: http://tinybuddha.com/blog/hobby-can-boost-motivation-change-life/

It’s doing really well and you are getting traffic and shares. But, you do some keyword research and notice that the URL could be optimized to improve its ranking position.
So, you update the url to:
NEW URL: http://tinybuddha.com/blog/boost-motivation-with-hobby/

What you’ve done is created a new url, and the old url now goes to a 404 page (unless you have an automatic redirect set up, some wordpress sites do).
Anywhere on your website where you have linked to the old url, and anyone else who linked to your old url, all of those links now go to a 404 error page.
(This is the 404 page which you would get on a weebly website if you follow a broken link.)
To check your 404 error page type your url into your browser and add some random letters at the end of it.
For example: http://tinybuddha.com/kkkddd
Top Tip: You can also optimise your 404’s like Tiny Buddha have done here. By simply placing links through to important or popular content you will decrease the number of users who leave your website from a 404 page.
There are tons of ways you can optimize the page and I have included some at the bottom of this post where we cover: How To Set Up A Custom Weebly 404 Error Page

The Reason Broken Links & 404 Errors Are Important To Fix

There are a few reasons why fixing your broken links is important.
Firstly user experience.
It is very annoying, especially if your visitor is on a mobile to click through to content & find a 404 page.

Short attention spans mean you don’t have a margin for error with your visitors.
Most will just leave your site and may never come back. That’s a lot of wasted energy which has gone into getting that visitor to your site only to have them leave again.

Another reason is for SEO purposes.
Say your post had been referenced by several other websites, perhaps it has been shared hundreds, maybe even thousands of times (we can dream).
If you don’t fix your broken links then all of this link equity stays with the old url and you’ve lost valuable positive signals pointing to your website.
Redirecting your old URL to your new URL means that most of this link juice will flow through to your new page.

How To Identify Broken Links & 404 Errors On My Site?

Identifying broken links is SUPER EASY thanks to Google and their tool Google Webmaster Tools. If you haven’t signed up already then get your profile. It’s very easy to install and there is a tutorial here for you to follow.
It might take Google a week or so to crawl your website and populate the data. But once it is populated navigate to the section; Crawl Errors

Weebly 404 Not Found Dead


​This will let you know where your broken links are! Perfect.
How To Fix Broken Links & 404 Errors In Weebly
Once you have identified your broken links, navigate to your Weebly Website Dashboard.
Select “Edit Site”.

And now hit “Settings” In The Top Navigation
Click The SEO Tab and scroll down to the redirect section.
​Here you can enter your old url and select the new page you want visitors to go to.
Top Tip: For deleted pages if there is a closely related page send users there. If there is no closely related page send users to your homepage, or consider re-writing the page!
I hope this post has inspired you to fix your broken links.
It might not be the sexiest thing in the world, but improving your visitors experience is.
So, check in every few months and make sure you aren’t frustrating your readers and losing valuable SEO juice in the process.
If you want to go one step further and create a customer weebly 404 page, then check below.
How To Set Up A Custom Weebly 404 Page
Weebly's 404 error page is very basic, it has to apply to lots of different websites across a huge range of industries and brands so that makes sense.
It does include a link through to your homepage to encourage visitors to click through and see if they can find what they are looking for, but it can be improved.
A custom 404 page is also one of the indicators for Google that tells them your site is high quality. I'm not saying that by adding a custom 404 page suddenly your site will be prioritized and you'll see your ranks increase.
However, putting that little bit of extra effort into your content is a good habit to get in to! It only takes a few minutes and you can have a custom 404 page which elevates the perception of your blog, website and / or business.
To create a custom weebly 404 page
Go to: Edit Site
Click: New Page
Name this page: 404
​Tick: Hide In Navigation

Weebly 404 Not Found Guilty

Weebly404 Not Found

Now you can create whatever you like!
And you can get really creative. Here are some of my favorite examples of 404 error pages for inspiration (note, these were not all created on Weebly).

Weebly 404 Not Found The Truth

Ebay 404 Error Page - good for function!
As you can see there are lots of ways you can go with this page. The perfect page is one that stays on brand but still helps the user gets to where they want to go. So make sure you have a link through to your homepage, or even better your site categories to help your visitor easily find what they are looking for.
That's it for this post! I hope this is a great reference for you. Good luck on your blogging journey and feel free to comment below or contact me and say hi.

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