Ya Gotta Keep 'em on your Web Site!

By Cajun Clark
Posted Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Mama didn't raise no dummies, so when by some fortuitous stroke of good luck the article "Increase Your Traffic by Recovering Your Lost Visitors," written by Shelley Lowery, appeared in the May 12 issue of SitePro News, this ol' mon jumped on it like a cat on a mouse.

Ms. Lowery writes, "If you spend any time surfing the Internet, you've probably encountered a few error messages. Error messages have numerous causes, such as misspellings, outdated links or internal server errors. When an error is encountered, your server will display specific generic error pages according to the error. These error pages are not only dead ends, but they are also very frustrating for your potential visitors.

"When your visitors mistype your web address or click on an outdated link and receive the dreaded error page, they'll most likely click on their back button and never return. However, you can recover a majority of your lost visitors simply by taking the time to create some customized, user friendly error pages."

Those two paragraphs alone should be enough stimulus for you to immediately contact your Web host and determine what error messages they provide and how can you customize them. That's what da ol' mon Caj did. He immediately contacted Mary Boonenberg at GMB Webworks, (http://www.gmbwebworks.com), and asked how. Then, following her tutelage, the error pages were customized in the inimitable style befitting Cajun Clark's Cookbook Web site.

Take a look. Who knows, maybe you can do something with your error pages that will keep your visitor on YOUR Web site.

(http://www.cajunclarks.com/400.shtml) -- Bad Request
(http://www.cajunclarks.com/401.shtml) -- Unauthorized Access
(http://www.cajunclarks.com/403.shtml) -- Forbidden
(http://www.cajunclarks.com/404.shtml) -- File Not Found
(http://www.cajunclarks.com/405.shtml) -- Method Not Allowed
(http://www.cajunclarks.com/500.shtml) -- Internal Server Error
(http://www.cajunclarks.com/501.shtml) -- Not Implemented
(http://www.cajunclarks.com/502.shtml) -- Bad Gateway
(http://www.cajunclarks.com/503.shtml) -- Service Unavailable

Please keep in mind that da ol' mon Caj is a kitchen techie, not a high tech(?) oxymoron techie, and give him some latitude. Thanks, 'preciate it.

Finally, you need to know more about the person responsible. Shelley Lowery is the author of "Web Design Mastery" -- An in-depth guide to professional web design. And, "Ebook Starter" -- A complete ebook design kit. Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for a free subscription to "Etips" and receive a free copy of the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies."

Yes! Thank you very much, Ms. Lowery, you're the main ingredient in this recipe.

About the Author
Cajun Clark has written a monster best selling 659-page eCookbook, with 1,160+ recipes: (http://www.cajunclarks.com) You're welcome to try a sampling of his recipes at no charge as a token of appreciation: (http://www.cajunclarks.com/freebies.htm) Be sure to also check out our eCookbook affiliate program.