404 page

[scruffy.thedog]

In google' seo guide in webmaster tools it suggests having a custom 404 page with links back to the root or home page. How would you code this in xara via placeholders so that when a link or page is missing or broken you are redirected to the 404 page with links back

cheers scruffy

[ShapeShifter]

This is for an Apache server (the most common)

I just create a page and name it 404.html
Upload it to the root of my domain and create a .htaccess file (just a notepad file called htaccess.txt that you rename to .htaccess once you FTP it)
In the file enter:

ErrorDocument 404 /404.html

That's it.
No placeholders necessary

[scruffy.thedog]

Hi Shape

This clients website is on a windows sever ...all the others i have are on apache so is there a difference?

Scruffy

Ps thanks for all your prolific input to the forum for me and others it really helps!

[ShapeShifter]

Yes there's a difference.
I've never needed to do this on a Windows server, so have no direct experience with it.
Here's the info you need though :-

If you have a Windows Server (Microsoft IIS), you need to have the physical access to the server to configure. If not, you can ask your webhost to do the configuration for you.
Create a custom 404 page and upload it at your document root (httpdocs).
Then, go to the Properties of WWW service (Run > Type “services” > Enter. Right click on the WWW and select Properties).
Click on the “Custom Errors” tab
Replace the default file for the 404 error with notfound.html.

[scruffy.thedog]

thanks