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404 redirect problem

Rene Poulsen
Reply

Hi,

I have a question regarding the 404 redirect. I have solution where I just want the 404 to redirect to the frontpage - that's easy. The problem i have is that the URL remains the same. E.g. if i access http://mysite.com/test/test.aspx (the page doesn't exist), I actually don't get redirected to the frontpage - it just shows the content from the redirect page on the same URL (http://mysite.com/test/test.aspx). I just want it to redirect - so the URL would be http://mysite.com.

Is there any setting that I don't know of somewhere to get this working?

Thanks in advance :-)

 

// René

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Replies

 
Janus Lock
Reply

Couldn't you just make a 404 page that redirects to the frontpage and set up the 404 function in DW to go to that page?

 
Rene Poulsen
Reply

Off course! :-) I'll try it out.

 
Rene Poulsen
Reply

Doesn't work :-(

The problem is quite big regarding SEO. If someone starts making links (via social media or other websites) to your website with mysite.com/xxx <-- and google actually finds the page, but the page doesn't contain content about xxx. That's bad!

If you competitor is a bit evil, they could do that to make Google downrank (or whatever you call it) your site. So I guess this is a feature request, if there isn't any other way to do it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Nicolai Høeg Pedersen
Reply

Entering mysite.com/xxx would return a 404 status code and Google will not index it. That is why it is a 404, so that is not a problem.

 

Redirecting mysite.com/xxx to the FrontPage would be a problem - that would make Google think you once had a page called xxx which is now the FrontPage.

 

Your 404 should not redirect to the FrontPage. You should create a nice 404 page that can help the user to find what he might be looking for or something else to keep him on the site.

 

Maybe have a look at this page: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2293339/404-Page-Best-Practices

 

BR Nicolai

 
Rene Poulsen
Reply

Perfect! I just found a test tool - and you are right Nicolai (like you always are ;-)). It's a 404 if I test it here: at mbn.dk/q.

Thank you for the answer

 

 

 

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