LexiConn – November 2012 Newsletter

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November 2012 Newsletter
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In this Month’s Newsletter…

* 301 or 404 – Which one to use?
* Featured Client: allhealthtrends.com
* From the Blog…

301 or 404 – Which one to use?

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Often times people aren’t sure as to when they should use a 301 redirect versus having a file default to the 404 “not found” page. In this article, we’ll clarify as to the purpose of each one and when they should be used on your site.

A 301 redirect is used to permanently redirect a file/site to a new location. They are ideal when you are changing the URL of a page and want to preserve ranking assigned to the old file name. A 301 redirect is the best way to ensure that users and search engines are routed to the correct location, and the 301 code means that the move is permanent.

Here is an article from our knowledgebase about creating 301 redirects for file names that have changed:

http://support.lexiconn.com/kb/questions/206/

Aside from redirecting outdated URLs, they can also be used if you change your domain name or have several different domains routing to the same location. A 301 can ensure that everything gets indexed consistently under one domain. This past newsletter goes into more detail on all the steps (as a 301 is just one of them) that need to be addressed if you are considering changing domain names:

http://support.lexiconn.com/news/viewtopic.php?t=483

A 404 response code is the standard response code for a file that isn’t found. It indicates that a successful connection was made to the destination server, but that the server couldn’t find what was requested. It shouldn’t be confused with server not found errors as it is the expected result for any file that doesn’t exist.

If you are deleting pages from your site and aren’t replacing them with new/similar ones, then a 404 would be the correct way to go. The default 404 file for LexiConn hosted accounts is the missing.html file located in the main www folder. However, many people opt to have a custom 404 page instead which can help people more easily find the information they are looking for. Feel free to overwrite the missing.html file in your account with a custom one, or specify in the .htaccess file which page should be used.

This link describes in detail how to create a useful 404 page:

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93641

Featured Client: allhealthtrends.com

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This month’s featured client is allhealthtrends.com. AllHealth Trends is an independently owned and operated national supplier of vitamins and dietary supplements.

http://www.allhealthtrends.com/

For more detailed information on this month’s featured client as well as a listing of all past featured clients, please go to:

http://support.lexiconn.com/news/viewforum.php?f=4

From the Blog…

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Here are some recent posts from The LexiConn Blog:

SSL Certificate Trends for Top 100 Retailers in 2012 – What’s Changed?
http://www.lexiconn.com/blog/2012/10/ssl-certs-2012/
- A few interesting trends that have emerged in the past two years.

Hurricane Sandy Recap
http://www.lexiconn.com/blog/2012/11/hurricane-sandy-recap/
- A look at how we fared during and after this latest storm.

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As always, feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.
Complete contact and support options can be found at:
http://www.lexiconn.com/support.html

Sincerely,
- The LexiConn Team

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