Errorlytics Blog

If you have a Wordpress Blog, there are a couple ways to attack the 404 errors on your website.  One plug-in that’s been around for a while is the 404 notifier by Alex King.  This tool has been around for over a year and it has a loyal set of users.  (more…)

So what is a 404 error anyways?  All we know is that they’re bad, they make people who encounter them aggravated and/or angry and we at Errorlytics have made it our mission to destroy as many as possible.  There’s more to it though and we just want to make sure that you, the user, know what a 404 error is. (more…)

Google recently announced that they have increased the functionality of their already amazingly helpful Webmaster Tools suite of services by including a simple and fast way to add some usability to your site’s custom 404 pages.  What the new functionality does is offer a range of possible solutions when a visitor comes across a 404 error.  When a visitor tries to find a non-existent URL, Google’s new 404 widget searches through the sitemap and returns any URLs that are similar to the entered URL.  The visitor will also get the results from a Google site search of that website. (more…)

One of the main premises behind creating Errorlytics was the need to expedite a process that could yield amazing results for our clients.  As people are signing up for errorlytics, they are agreeing with us.  It’s never been a debate about how important 404 error fixing was, it’s just been a hastle trying to figure out a time efficient way to handle them all.  In a side by side comparison, using Errorlytics has an advantage in that it is quicker and requires less knowledge of code to ID 404 errors.  Errorlytics also has the added feature of rule creation to easily redirect 404 errors to a working page on the website.  Webmaster’s, such as Silki Garg, write about their experiences on Errorlytics.  Here’s what Silki had to say about Errorlytics on his Internet Security Blog.

Recently, I received an email from an inquiring mind about the value in Errorlytics.  His question was:

“Why not just edit your 404 page to say ‘Hey, the page you are looking for is not here, click here for the homepage’”

From an SEO standpoint and a “my-page-won’t-be-a-pain-in-the-toosh” standpoint, there are many reasons why Errorlytics redirects are more worthwhile than a 404 page that links to the homepage.  I’m a much better story teller than list writer so I responded with the following story about a pretend webmaster, Bob, and a potential customer, Cathy (mom of some little girl who didn’t get a name in the story)  Here’s what I wrote: (more…)

Just a few moments ago the Errorlytics clock passed 1,500,000 and I started thinking to myself, what does that really mean to our users?

Errorlytics is useful for all sorts of things, better SEO, better user experience, less administrative frustration, more insight into your site, etc . But really when it comes right down to it there is really only one thing people want to know when they’re evaluating to a product. Is it worth the cost?

Based on the assumptions below, the answer to that question is an emphatic, YES!

*Calcuations based on 1.5M 404 errors, an average of 4PPV, and 8CPM.

Like any other page on your website, your 404 error page should work in favor of you and your goals. Like your homepage, a 404 error page should have a linking structure that is easy to understand. Also, like any other page on your site, consider what the end-user would be looking for and then put that content on your page. . .and as always, make sure your 404 error page is visually appealing. The only thing that is worse than an error page is an ugly error page. Here’s a list of things to consider when creating your own 404 error page: (more…)

The best way to fix a mistake is first own up to it and then try to correct it in the least painful way.  That’s the concept behind custom 404 error pages.  Custom 404 pages show up when something has gone wrong and make an attempt to remedy the situation.  Different sites, however, design their pages to do slightly different things.  Some may be just to inform, others may be purely entertainment, and still others may do a combination of the two.  Here’s a list of some of the coolest 404 error pages on the web, categorized by primary function.  If you’re looking for some ideas for your own 404 error page, take a look at these.  You don’t have to worry about bad examples though because to make this list, your site needed to follow our rules for an effective custom 404 error page. (more…)

Got 6 minutes and 17 seconds to learn about an online tool that helps webmasters and website marketing managers kill the 404 error while preserving and helping SEO? ….just press play….

Errorlytics Tutorial from Josh Katinger on Vimeo.

A quick tutorial on how to use errorlytics. More info at www.errorlytics.com

A quick tutorial on how to use errorlytics. More info at www.errorlytics.com

Errorlytics now offers a module for easy integration with sites running on the Drupal open source content management system. Drupal already offers 404 tracking information as part of it’s core, however integrating your Drupal site with Errorlytics makes fixing 404s as easy as finding them. (more…)