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Non-existent pages Maked sure that all the hyperlinks point at existing places. A link leading to “404” (a page that does not exist) does not say well about your job.

Your own “404” If it’s possible, make your own subpage instead of server’s default “404,” which usually looks quite different than the rest of your website, and is pretty much useless. Check out how this kind of page looks on this website. You still feel that it is part of the website, and instead of uninteresting mesage, it tries to point to helpful places.

Error information Let’s make sure none of our visitors will encounter such messages If we use dynamically generated webpages (for example, by using PHP), make sure that in the event of failure, the user won’t be flooded with heaps of unfriendly and irrelevant error messages. Instead, prepare an information saying that due to technical difficulties, the website is not working properly at the moment. If it is possible, make a service that informs you immediately about every such error (using automatically sent e-mail or text message for a cellular phone) – this way you will be able to react quickly and prevent further visitors from encountering the same error.

Statistics Don’t count on learning everything about the site from its visitors. It is better to make sure that some sort of statistics or logs are being collected – of course, to the extent possible. These will let us know which pages of our website are the most and which are the least popular ones, what kind of browsers do the visitors use, and where did they come from. It will undoubtedly help in site’s further development.

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Page added on 23rd September 2003. Copyright © 2002-2005 Marcin Wichary