If you own a web site, you never know who has saved a page from your
site to their favorites file (bookmarked it). It might be your home
page, a great article, or a terrific resource. And since you don't
know, every time you remove a page, you run the risk of people
getting that annoying "page not found" error when they click on their
favorites link.

You can always find out later how many visits your "removed pages"
have had by viewing your site statistics and examining your error log
(if you have one)-but by then its maybe too late.

When you remove a page, honor your viewers by providing them with an
option. Take the page you want to remove and turn it into a
redirected page. Redirect it to your home page or another page on
your site that contains similar information. How do you do this? Let
me give you an example.

I had a page on my site called www.coachmaria.com/coachability.html.
The information originally on that page is no longer useful, so I
removed it and inserted the HTML code below. Now when someone goes to
the old page, they are "redirected" to another page. Try it
www.coachmaria.com/coachability.html The HTML code I used on the page
below for you to view.or use. The number "2" in the "meta tag"
represents the number of seconds it will take to redirect the page.
Change this number as you see fit. The "meta tag" information takes
the page directly to another page (in this case contest.html). I use
the other information "just in case" the meta tag redirect doesn't
work. It gives the viewer the option of tapping on a link to move
directly to the redirected page. Your webmaster would also have to
remove the dot I put into each of the HTML tags below. (If I didn't
add them here, you wouldn't be able to view the code below).

<.html>
<.head>
<.meta http-equiv="refresh"
content="2;url=">http://www.coachmaria.com/contest.html">
<./head>
<.h1 align="center">*Maria's Place Redirector*<./h1>
<.p align="center">We have moved the page you've saved. You will be
taken to a new page immediately.

<.a href="http://www.coachmaria.com/contest.html">Click Here<./a> if
the page takes too long to load.
<./BODY>
<./HTML>

Bonus: This program provides an on line, fill in the blanks form,
that produces HTML code you've requested for your re-direct page.
It's by InnerPeace.org who calls it a jumper page program.
http://innerpeace.org/pagejumper.shtml



About the Author
© Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved. Maria Marsala, Business & Life
Coach-Consultant. Maria works with individuals as they design, start
and grow their business or career around what they love to
do. Visit http://www.CoachMaria.com to subscribe to "Growing You and Your
Business" a free weekly online newsletter.