Hopefully you are running some statistical accounting method on your website and/or blog like Google Analytics. By tracking the information in and out of your site, you will also be made aware of pages that either got lost in the shuffle, were eliminated completely but still referenced elsewhere on your site (that you forgot to remove the link to), or pages seach engines like Google (for reasons unknown) expect to be there, but aren’t.

These are known as your 404 page errors, and letting them pile up can be a time consuming task to set straight and (potentially) hurt your standings.

Mostly they are just a pain in the neck to get search engines like Google to stop seeing. In fact, years ago on a completely different hosting server, I did use the cgi-bin (we don’t now). And, even though the hosting had changed numerous times, those cgi-bin 404 errors kept haunting me. So when I saw a recent incoming newsletter about this problem, I figured it’s a good time to give everyone either a heads up or reminder to track these down and eliminate them.

In fact, Mary Peng of Web Analytics World has recently put out an article on how to make the most of those inevitable 404 errors. She writes:

No matter what type of site you may have, 404 errors may cost you something. It might not be money, but it’s costing you something. Retail sites could be losing money. Other types of sites, however, may be losing something just as valuable… pageviews… return visitors… things like that….

The truth is, your site could potentially do that extra 10-25%, you just don’t benefit from it because your visitors are encountering 404 page not found errors. These visitors can be potential browsers and buyers, but once they hit that 404 page, they’ll leave and bring their money to another site.

Within her article, she also suggests another resource that gives you some great suggestions on how to fix up your 404 errors.

You’ll also discover some very interesting and creative ways you can make those dreaded 404 errors more entertaining. Here are more cool ways web owners have created their 404 pages.

So don’t wait too long. Do stay on top of these “lost pages.” Put them to valuable use and never lose another visitor to your site again.

Comments Welcome! Please Add Yours!

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Google’s page rank is finally meeting its (long overdue) end.

I don’t know how many pages I’ve visited of late that get decent (or boatloads of) traffic yet have no or very low PRs. In reverse, you’ve got the huge PR website, yet you can easily tell (via add ons, etc.) that no one knows they even exist.

For further proof, head to the Google search itself. Type in anything you want (I typed in “latest news google pr“) then start scanning and researching the leading results. For my particular phrase, front page results reflected posts and web pages posted last month to several years ago. I did check the “pr” and “alexa” for many of them. No surprise to find that front page results included sites without any PR at all – along with some with traffic so minuscule anyone would be shaking their head over “why the front page?” (Maybe our accompanying illustration helps reinforce the head scratching, mind boggling way this is all “determined.”)

It’s fact – while there are popular sites (depending on what you type) like WebMD or Amazon in your search results, you always find within those same front page results websites with no PR and a variety of traffic (low to high).

So I’m going to go further out on that limb to say that I think when it comes to choosing “traffic versus Google PR” that anyone in their right mind would opt for the traffic, right?

Boatloads of traffic!

The Google PR used to be a badge of honor, and many a webmaster or seo expert sweated bullets over this one. Maybe some still do.

However, even the folks at Google cannot or will not tell (or do not know) whether PR really means a hill of beans in the end.

What prompted this post was an inspection this morning of my ezine advertising website.

At one point in its so far 7 year history, it achieved a traffic rank of under 21K and held onto a PR 4 (for this type of niche this was outstanding). Then along came one of those infamous algorithm changes and now… well this morning on my end of the world there is no PR on the site. Zip, zilch, nada.

Now it could be the folks at Google are in some cycle doing updates again. Could be the poor thing just lost out in this latest round of bids for ranking. Be that as it may, thankfully it does sit on the front page for many of the distinct keywords necessary for folks to find it. And that’s what counts.

Google plays with their algorithm so much and so often, you could easily drive yourself insane figuring out your next move. Running around in circles trying to please or appease, you’ll not only get dizzy, but allow much of your competition to race right past you.

What should you be working on? Words. Content. And more importantly, in SEO terms, keyword content. You do have to know the difference between appropriately working those keywords into your content (and which ones are really going to be any use to you in the first place) and cramming them into metas and content like there’s no tomorrow. Do not be short sighted nor mislead by shady tactics.

The time is ripe for the rest of the world to just “do their own thing.” Work your website or blog the way you wish to work it (and start having fun for a change). Go for the gold, go for traffic. Let’s also hope that Google drops this antiquated ranking platform very, very soon.

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Yeah! While we tell people this day in and day out, there are still a few doubting Thomas’ out there that believe nothing tops a good PR ranking.

Yes seeing that little green bar means a lot to some, but we’ve also seen hundreds if not thousands of “stories” online. By stories, I mean as we visit sites with decent PRs, a check of their TRAFFIC stats often shows they are getting little if any visitors.

So what’s the big deal about PR anyway? Which would you prefer… a nice PR or thousands of visitors, search engine spiders, and rss feeders crawling all over your website and blog?

Sort of a rhetorical question isn’t it…

But, why take our word for it? Here’s a recent quote from none other than Matt Cutts of Google fame himself: (more…)

One of our “tenets” in our tag line for this blog includes “hot topic news” and this most certainly fits the bill. Please read on!

I must be having withdrawal symptoms since my favorite MSNBC news shows air only Monday through Friday. So it’s digging deep into our local, “switch sides every other day” (sound familiar?) local newspaper, The Las Vegas Review Journal that grabbed my attention this morning.

Actually much of the following – other than my own two cents – comes from a section of the paper, the Las Vegas Sun (don’t ask me what their relationship is – but the one does stick in parts of the other). And, just so you know up front, the Las Vegas Sun endorses Obama.

The first tidbit I’d like to share is along the lines of “is wealth distributed properly in this country.”

Here’s a shocker for all us working “Joes and Janes” (thanks Palin) – from Sunday’s Parade Magazine:

(more…)

Welcome to the beginning of hopefully a wonderful weekend for everyone!

I’ve had a small file of things to blog about going for the past several days, but always find there is one more thing to do before I can get to doing what I love to do… write!

But, there is a lull in the storm, so I’m picking something that I should have blogged about a long time ago. However, if truth be told, I’ve been greedy and keeping it to myself LOL! (more…)