Knowledge is the Foundation To Success  

Did you know that you can customize your 404 Error pages? Did you know it’s a really good idea to customize your 404 error pages? Customizing a 404 error page is a great way to prevent a lost click, a lost visitor and a lost sale or conversion.

First off, what is 404 error page? Let’s say you’ve updated your website and all your URLs have changed. Natural, or organic listings can take awhile to catch up, and someone could click an old listing and land on a 404 error page. Same with bookmarks. Unless you’ve taken the time to automatically redirect every old URL on your site to your new pages, that visitor is going to land on a 404 error page. Another way to land on the 404 page is if someone misspelled a page of your site, or forgot the “L” at the end of the “.html.”

Now here’s why creating your own custom 404 error page is a good thing: The standard 404 error page is pretty generic, it really doesn’t explain what a 404 error is and every server displays different error text. It can also be pretty confusing for a visitor. After all, the page they get is not what they are expecting. They could just leave, and you don’t want them to do that after they took the time to visit you. Custom 404 errors are good customer service. Think of it as one more way of being extra helpful and friendly.

So, here’s what to include on your new custom 404 error page:

• First, apologize. It might not be your fault, but that’s okay. Just say you’re sorry, but the page they are looking for doesn’t seem to exist.
• Give them reasons why it might not exist. Maybe they spelled a word in the URL wrong. Maybe all your pages end in HTML, and they missed the “L” on the end.
• Give them a few links of where they could go, like Home, About, Products, or maybe the top five pages on your site.
• Include a search box. But a search box should be the last resort, not the only option.
• Brand it as your site, without overwhelming them. This page should be simple without every choice possible.

Another school of thought is sending 404 errors to the home page (and before you give me a hard time, yes, I know the JumpFly website 404 error page goes to the home page. I’m not in charge of our site. And this Blog is just a matter of my opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the owners of JumpFly.). However, sending 404s to the home page can confuse users because they’ll wonder why they ended up back on the home page. You could also send someone to your sitemap, but again, they’ll wonder how they got there, and why. The point is, we’re trying to help visitors, not confuse them more.

I’m not going to go into the mechanics of HOW to create your 404 page. There are a couple of good sites out there that explain how – here’s two that I think are decent resources:

• www.plinko.net/404/custom.asp: explains the mechanics of how to create a custom 404 page based on the server your site is hosted on
• www.404errorpages.com: much more technical on what exactly a 404 error is.

More About Nikki

There are various scenarios that may require pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers to update their ads’ destination URLs at Google AdWords. For example, URLs may need to be modified when implementing call tracking, testing new landing pages or adding new tracking URLs. While advertisers could simply change the destination URL in each AdWords ad, this is likely not the best solution. By changing the destination URL, or any variable associated with an AdWords ad, the ad then loses the valuable performance history it has established in the account (ad performance history is one of the many variabels used to determine Quality Score). This action causes the ad to be treated just like a brand new ad, even though just the destination URL changed.

Here at JumpFly, we frequently hear from advertisers who share examples of successfully running Google AdWords ads that were modified for one reason or another, and could then never recapture the results previously achieved. I am sure this can be incredibly frustrating, but fortunately it can be easily avoided!

Secret #1: Never initially delete successful ads in Google AdWords accounts!
If ad changes are needed, initially pausing successful ads and creating new ones, rather than deleting ads, is a really good idea so you can just turn them back on later if desired. Unused ads can always be permanently deleted later.

Secret #2: Change destination URLs at the keyword level to prevent disrupting ad performance
This is a critical concept to be familiar with and understand. Ads can be redirected to a different destination URL at the keyword level without changing the destination URL in the ad itself. This feature enables advertisers to change destination URLs without losing the ad’s performance history. This is a valuable tool, but depending on the size of the AdWords account, might seem like an overwhelming task. Fortunatley, AdWords Editor is here to the rescue.

Secret #3: Use AdWords Editor to update destination URLs
Once again, Google AdWords Editor enables advertisers to manage accounts much more efficiently. In AdWords Editor, users can easily upload a new destination URL to all the terms in an account in an instant. Amazing. Time saving. Powerful. Using AdWords Editor for managing Google AdWords accounts is a must.

Now go download AdWords Editor today! You won’t regret it.

View more about Brad

View more articles about AdWords Editor
View more articles about Google AdWords

One of my favorite clients is an older man who has a highly successful ecommerce website. His PPC was done in-house until we took it over, and he’s been absolutely delighted by the increase in sales and decrease in cost per conversion. He calls me every week to go over his reports. I love the fact that he wants to understand his reports and what it all means and I enjoy talking to him. He’s coming to the realization that nothing stays the same and one week of data can’t predict the rest of the month, that his conversion rate and everything else fluctuates, sometimes dramatically, and that a term that converts one week, might not convert the next. I love that he gets this, because that can be one of the hardest things to get my clients to understand.

Sometimes there’s a reason why a search term converts well and then stops converting as well. But a lot of times, there’s no reason that we can figure out and if you just wait a bit, it’ll turn around again. Sometimes you’ve just got to “Let It Ride.”

I have a few clients that freak out after one bad day – they want me to increase or decrease bids or pause an ad or stop advertising a search term all together. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned with PPC is to look at the long view and not react to every little dip and swell. I tell my clients that PPC Advertising is like the stock market – you can’t react to every little change, but you’ve got to let it ride and look at the big picture.

And just a few days ago, a client informed me that I should be writing new ads for him every two days, as well as changing his bids. And I told him that’s one of the worst things you can do. Now don’t get me wrong, writing new ads is great – I’m constantly trying to beat my best performing ad in each AdGroup, but if I’m changing ads and bids every few days, how am I supposed to see what’s working and what’s not? How do I make decisions based on sound data and not guestimates? Sometimes you have to let it ride, collect the data and THEN make the decisions about what to do. If something’s working and working well, don’t mess with it, just for the sake of saying something’s been done.

Even though it is really tempting to look at one day of data and say that this keyword or AdGroup or ad will never work, resist that urge. Look at how that keyword, AdGroup or ad performs over time. And don’t get caught up in trying to figure out why a search term worked one day or one week or one month and not the next. You could drive yourself crazy, because sometimes there is no reason that’s within your control. Proceed with caution and keep a watchful eye but don’t give up hope.