What is it?

An error page or default 404 page is a webpage specifically displayed if a different webpage has moved.

So why have it?

Chances are, if you've had a website for more that two or three years you've probably had some redesigning done.

That means that some of your web pages have changed, moved,s or been deleted all together for different reasons. This can become a problem if you don't have a default error page.

Many of your past visitors may have linked directly to some of those pages and, more importantly search engines may have indexed those pages. Then, when a visitor clicks on a link or a favorite that has moved they are presented with an error page.

This can be a nicely formatted page that looks like the rest of your site and tells visitors that the page they're looking for has moved or has been removed. But without an error page, it often looks like you're out of business, your website doen't exist, it has problems and isn't as professional as it should be.

If you have thought to include an error page, your site visitor still gets at least a basic explaination and is encouraged to stay on your website.

Often we will setup the error page to automatically take the visitor to the homepage - where they can then easily figure out where they need to go next.

Ask your webmaster to be sure you have a default error page setup. Or just check for yourself. Type in your website address and then a page or directory that doesn't exist. An example would be our actual home page web address : www.mydestiny.com/index.php - but if I type an incorrect/non-existent webpage such as: www.mydestiny.com/not-here.php, the default error page displays.