|
  |
|
|
HTTP Error 404 and 301 – Tips to Understand These Status Codes
By Pankaj Singh of SRE Global Infotech
As an Internet-savvy individual, you might have come across HTTP error 404 and 301 very often while requesting a web page. Have you tried to understand the reason behind such errors? If no, this article will help you get a complete understanding of them. We’ll also learn how to fix them for good. HTTP 404 Meaning An error 404 is one of the numerous Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) status codes like 100, 101, 200, 201, 202, 301, 401, etc. It takes place when an Internet user requests a web page that does not exist. As a result, the user receives the “404 Not Found” or “Page Cannot Be Found” message. Explaining HTTP status codes, these are used to offer information pertaining to the position of a request made to the server. The code for displaying any normal web page is 200, but you don’t see it. Here, the question arises why this specific “404” is used. To your surprise, each digit of the 404 bears a particular meaning. The beginning ‘4’ points to an error on the client side, such as a wrongly spelt out uniform resource locator or URL. The ‘0’ in the middle signifies a syntax error and the last ‘4’ belongs to the class of 40x indicating a particular fault. HTTP 404 Fixing The prevention of 404 is quite straightforward. Simply analyze the error log files present on the server of website. These logs can make your task easier by providing the problematic documents that are bringing forth the fault. In the majority of instances, an incorrectly spelt URL or a broken link causes this problem. As the error 404 can drive away visitors, many webmasters go for the idea of making the proper use of this page and customize it to guide visitors to the home page or other important web pages. HTTP 301 Meaning On the other hand, the error 301 takes place when the requested web page has been permanently moved to a new URL. So, you will be promptly redirected to that new location after the display of “301 Moved Permanently” message. This HTTP status code should be mentioned with the location header. According to RFC 2616, clients having link-editing abilities must renew all the references to the requested URL. The response is cacheable unless specified differently. Except when the response method was HEAD, the entity must comprise a brief hypertext note to the novel URL(s). If a request is of any kind except GET or HEAD and the 301 code is displayed as a result of this request, the permission of the user must be sought by the client system before redirecting the page. The use of HTTP 301 is helpful from the search engine standpoint as Google will assign the PageRank of the old page to the new one if it comes across this status code. HTTP 301 Fixing As far as fixing this error is concerned, your server must respond to it by including an alternate URL for proper redirection of the page. If the server is unable to return an alternative URL in response to the code, you’ll understand that either the software of the web server is faulty or the redirection of the web page is not done accurately by the webmaster.
Mr. Pankaj is a SEO Expert. He came from a technical background. He did MCA from a reputed institution in India.After just one year and great success in the role, Pankaj was promoted to SEO Manager (Operations). He is passionate about internet marketing technology and love to spend the valuable time to research and operate SEO operations Team. For more information visit SEO Company India & SEO Blog .
|
 
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
No reactions yet.
Please login or sign up to rate this intel.
Please login or sign up to add a comment.
|
 |
|
Hi Pankaj, Great Intel. Most things are well laid out and well explained. The only thing I was left wondering about is RFC2616. What is it? Gilbert
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Hi Gilbert RFC (Request for Comments) 2616 : Hypertext Transfer Protocol - HTTP/1.1 RFC (Request For Comments), an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) memorandum on Internet systems and standards. We can say a document that describes the specifications for a recommended technology. According to RFC 2616, Internet HTTP Compression is a method to send from the Web server, an HTTP response message in compressed format to a requesting Web browser. This technology assumes that the Web server is capable of encoding the outbound content and the Web browser is capable of (automatically) decoding the received content. HTTP Compression saves transfer data volume and speeds ups Web page load time. This short overview discusses various aspects of HTTP compression, suggest proven solutions, and gives hints to further reading.
Hi Pankaj, Good explanation for the error codes. I use the .htaccess file to redirect 404 errors to a page on my site with the navigation menu so that I don't lose the visitor.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Hi Brian Thanks a lot for your comment.
The copyright for this content entitled "HTTP Error 404 and 301 – Tips to Understand These Status Codes" has been specified by the contributor as:
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
Details 
This content may be copied, distributed, and modified, as long as a) the original author is acknowledged with a link back to the content page, and b) if the work is modified, the result is distributed with this same license.
If you use this content according to the license specified, you must link to the following URL:
http://sreglobalinfotech.qondio.com/
|
|
May, 2012
2008
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2009
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2011
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2012
January, February, March, April, May
|
|
Not a member yet?
Qondio is a powerful network for making it online. If you have a website to
promote, we can help.
Sign up and get in on the action.
|
|
Welcome to Qondio! Discover the awesome power this network can deliver by going to our About page. Or you could skip straight to the Sign Up form.
|
|
