Update 404 Error Pages
When a URL on a website is requested, but the URL does not exist, the website returns a 404 error to indicate that a page cannot be found.
Some ways that 404 errors are triggered are:
- A user clicked on a link from another website that leads to a page on the site that does not exist
- The URL used to exist on the site but has since been deleted
- A user mistypes the URL of a page on the site
- A bot / spider that crawls the website arrived at the URL in error (Googlebot, Yahoo bot, Bing bot, etc)
When any of the events listed above happen, the server will respond with a 404 error, and will also respond with a page of content to display. This page of content is called a 404 error page.
Here is an example of the default 404 page:
How to Create a Custom 404 Page
- Navigate to My Content >> New Web Page
- Add a unique Permalink (e.g., "my404")
- Make sure it is set as "Single Web Page"
- Save the page.
404 Page Example
Default 404 Error Page
Use this advanced setting to select which page the website will use as the 404 page.
Default 404 Error Page
error_404
Using the drop down select from the available web pages on the website:
How Does a Brilliant Directories Website Handle 404 Error Pages?
In the past, all Brilliant Directories websites would use the homepage as the 404 error page. Using the homepage as the 404 error page is great for human visitors to the site, as the content the visitor was looking for at an erroneous URL can often be found from the homepage of a site.
However, the homepage is also typically one of the most resource-intensive pages of a website, and loading the homepage will usually consume more bandwidth than loading any other page of a site. Depending on the content that is displayed on the homepage, it can consume anywhere between 1 MB - 10 MB of bandwidth every time the homepage is loaded.
If a bot or spider (non-human user) attempts to load erroneous URLs on the website, they will always be served the homepage, which will consume a significant amount of bandwidth.
In order to minimize the amount of bandwidth used when a 404 error is triggered, we have created a default 404 error page that simply notifies the visitor that the page they requested does not exist, which is typical behavior for most websites around the web. This new page also only consumes about 1 KB of bandwidth each time it is loaded, which is about 1,000 - 10,000 times less bandwidth consumption than the typical homepage. This will save a significant amount of bandwidth from being consumed by 404 errors.
There is also a link on the default 404 page to the homepage for real visitors to click on so they can continue to look for the information they were originally requesting.
