Hello everyone, welcome to series tutorial on server error issues. Today we are going to discuss about tracking 404 errors and also try to discuss how to prevent 404 errors in smartest way. 404 is one of the most common error status code between http error status code. So lets start -

What is 404 Errors:

First of all we have to know what is this 404 error ?? I think most of the web developers and programmers are oftently face 404 errors. 404 error occures when server does not found any page or failed to find out requested image/files. Sometimes it can be occur for incomplete url. Incomplete url means you are trying to get something that will not exist in your server!

How to Track 404 Errors:

we can track 404 error simply using three technique.such as , keep a log file, if there is an error redirect user a nice page where we show 404 error nicely,so that user can not feel bother!. we can also use a robot.txt file.

Log Files - Web Server log files help in tracking the 404 errors. These standard log files are just ASCII text files that have each HTTP protocol transaction, whether completed or not, recorded in them. Most of the HTTP errors are recorded in the transfer log and the error log files.

If you have access to the log files of your website, you can observe the HTTP status code field. This field gives you an idea about the occurrence of 404 errors, their frequencies, consistencies, and also the referred document that led to the errors. Also find out the existence of any broken link on your site and the misspelled URL that led to the error. When you know all these information, you can easily correct the link and prevent 404 errors on your website.

Technique to prevent 404 in smart way:

Redirects – If you find a page that is consistently getting a 404 error, you can create a redirect page using the .htaccess file that automatically takes the users from an older page to its newer replacement. You can use Permanent and Temporary Redirects to "catch" old referrals from other sites and send the visitors to their intended information. You can check nice 404 pages design from follwings lists. Hope it will help you to make nice 404 page and get back your user in your site.

Best 404 Pages examples for web designers/developers

Robots File - If you have a section of your site with pages that are frequently changed, you can block the search engines from indexing them in their databases using robots.txt file so that you can prevent 404 errors.

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