How many people visit your web site but type in the wrong address? You'd be surprised! What happens to them if they try to reach a page you've deleted? In either event, they'll get what is known as a '404 error'. This means you have lost sales - and confidence in your web site, which means they'll never revisit. But there is a solution.

Don't you get frustrated when you visit a web site and all you get is an error telling you the site doesn't exist? Do you get annoyed when you see the following message:

The page cannot be found

The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

HTTP 404 - File not found

Internet Explorer

Well, guess what, people who visit your web site and get the same error are also annoyed and frustrated with you. And that means they'll probably never visit your site again and have lost confidence in you. Equally, they won't tell their friends about your amazing services or the wonders of your web site. More importantly than losing their visit, however, is the fact that you have lost a sale - and the opportunity for repeat sales. The '404 error' is a serious problem and one that needs resolving if your site is to perform at its maximum effect.

Thankfully, there is a solution. The first thing you need to do is to take your main sales web page and ensure that all the links are 'absolute' and not 'relative'. By that I mean you should convert links which say things like 'salespage.htm' to the full address of 'http://www.yourwebsitename.com/salespage.htm'. You should also convert all the image links to their full address - instead of '../images/picture1.htm' it should be something like 'http://wwwyourwebsitename.com/images/picture1.htm'.

Having done this you should now go online to your web hosting account. Almost all web hosting companies will allow you to create a 'custom error page' or a 'custom 404 page'. Go to the relevant part of your hosting account and copy the code you have just edited into the appropriate place.

When people type the wrong address, or when you delete a page, people will still be able to get to your site and see a page which could sell to them. To see this in action visit my web site http://www.infoselling.com. After the .com type a slash (/) and then anything you like. Try to avoid typing a word which you think I might have in a page name. Perhaps type nonsense or your own name. See what you get. Now try the same experiment with another web site and see what happens - try it on Ecademy for instance!

Having a custom 404 page which actually sells something is essential. You are losing a substantial number of potential customers if your site does not have a proper page to deliver to people who mistype things or who are trying to access a deleted page.

Graham Jones is a psychologist who has specialized in the way we use the Internet. He is an expert on information products and runs Infoselling.com where you can get a FREE report on how to sell your own infoproducts.

http://www.infoselling.com