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404 and soft 404 notificationsGoogle Search Console warns publishers about two types of 404 errors: the standard 404 and the so-called “soft 404. Although they both carry the code 404, they differ significantly.Therefore, it is crucial to understand the distinction between these errors in order to solve them effectively.HTTP status codesWhen a Web page is opened by a browser, it returns a status code indicating whether the request was successful, and if not, why not.These responses are given by what are known as HTTP response codes, but officially they are called HTTP status codes.A server provides five categories of response codes; this article deals specifically with one response, the 404 status code for “page not found.Why do 404 status codes happen?All codes within the range of 4xx responses mean that the request could not be fulfilled because the page was not found. The official definition reads:4xx (Client error): The request contains bad syntax or cannot be fulfilled.The 404 response leaves in the middle whether the Web page might return. Examples of why the ‘404 Page Not Found’ error message occurs:If someone accidentally deletes a web page, the server responds with the 404 page not found.If someone links to a nonexistent Web page, the server replies that the page was not found (404).The official documentation is clear on the ambiguity of whether a page is temporarily or permanently gone:“The 404 (Not Found) status code indicates that the originating server has not found a current representation for the target resource or is unwilling to reveal that one exists.A 404 status code does not indicate whether this lack of representation is temporary or permanent…”What is a soft 404?A soft 404 error is not an official status code. The server does not send a soft 404 response to a browser because no soft 404 status code exists.Soft 404 describes a situation where the server presents a Web page and responds with a 200 OK status code, indicating success, while the Web page or content is actually missing.This can be confusing because the server seems to indicate that everything is fine, while the desired content is not available. This can lead to problems with user experience and SEO because it appears that the page exists when in reality it does not.https://ift.tt/lW3S4Ho for a soft 404There are four common reasons for a soft 404:A missing web page where the server sends a 200 OK status. This occurs when a page is missing, but the server configuration redirects the missing page to the home page or a custom URL.Missing or “thin” content. If content is completely missing or very limited (also known as thin content), the server responds with a 200 status code. Search engines classify this as soft 404s.The missing page is redirected to the home page. Some redirect a missing page to the home page to avoid 404 error messages even though the home page was not requested.Missing page redirects to a custom web page. Sometimes missing pages redirect to a specially designed web page that gives a 200 status code, resulting in Google classifying it as soft 404s.Soft 404 errors due to errors in codeSometimes a page is not really missing, but certain problems, such as programming errors, cause Google to classify the page as missing. Soft 404s are important to investigate because they can indicate broken code. Common programming problems are:A missing file or component that should place content on a Web page.Database errors.Missing JavaScript.Empty search results pages.404 errors have two main causes:An error in the link sends users to a non-existent page.A link to a page that once existed but suddenly disappeared.Link errorsWhen a 404 error is caused by a link failure, you need to fix the broken links. The challenging part of this task is finding all the broken links on a site.This can be particularly troublesome for large, complex Web sites with thousands or even millions of pages.In such cases, crawler tools are very useful. There are many website crawling software options available: free tools such as Xenu and Greenflare, or paid software such as Screaming Frog, DeepCrawl, Botify, Sitebulb and OnCrawl.Several of these programs offer free trial versions or free versions with limited features.Of course, you can also use your favorite SEO tool such as SEMrush, Ahrefs or Ubersuggest and perform a technical SEO scan of your website.What if a page no longer exists?If a page no longer exists, you have two options:Restore the page if it was accidentally deleted.Create a 301 redirect to the most related page if the removal was intentional.First, you need to locate all link errors on the site. As with locating all link errors for a large-scale website, you can use crawler tools for this.However, crawler tools cannot find orphan pages: pages that are not linked anywhere from navigation links or from any of the pages.Orphan pages may exist if they were once part of the website, but after a website redesign, the link to this old page disappears, while external links from other websites may still lead to it.To check whether such pages exist on your site, you can use several tools.How do you solve 404 problems?Crawling tools don’t detect soft 404 because it’s not a 404 error. But you can use them to find something else.Here are some things to watch out for:Thin Content: Some crawlers report pages with little content and a sortable word count. Start with pages with the fewest words to assess whether the page has thin content.Duplicate Content: Some crawlers are sophisticated enough to determine what percentage of the page is template content. There are also specific tools for finding internal duplicate content, such as SiteLiner. If the main content is almost the same as many other pages, you should examine these pages and determine why duplicate content exists on your site.In addition to crawlers, you can also use Google Search Console and search under crawl errors for pages listed as soft 404s.Crawling an entire site to find problems that cause soft 404s allows you to locate and fix problems before Google detects them.After detecting these soft 404 problems, you need to correct them.Often the solutions seem obvious. This can include simple things like expanding pages with thin content or replacing duplicate content with new and unique content.During this process, here are a few points to consider:Merge pagesSometimes thin content is caused by being too specific with the page theme, leaving you with little to say.Merging multiple thin pages into one page may be more appropriate if the topics are related. This not only solves problems with thin content, but can also solve problems with duplicate content.Find technical issues causing duplicate contentEven with a simple web crawler like Xenu (which only looks at URLs, comment tags and title tags and not content), you can still find duplicate content problems by looking at URLs.This includes www versus non-www URLs, HTTP and HTTPS, with index.html and without, with tracking parameters and without, etc.Why use HTTPS?HTTP websites have long been a fixture on the Internet.Nowadays, HTTPS, the newer variant, is on the rise. But what exactly is the difference?HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol and is used to receive information from the Web. It was originally developed to secure and authorize transactions on the Web. In simple terms, it displays information to the Internet user.However, without a secure connection, any network between the source host and the target host can alter the information received by the target host.This is where HTTPS comes in. HTTPS, which stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure, uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) for a more secure way of transporting data. This ensures a secure connection, which is a win for everyone.The benefit of HTTPSLet’s take a look at the benefits of using HTTPS.Improved Search ResultsGoogle has not confirmed that HTTPS is a ranking factor, but does prefer sites that use HTTPS.Research showed that HTTPS has a positive impact on visibility in the SERPs.Better User ExperienceBrowsers such as Firefox and Chrome indicate whether a Web site is safe. Studies show that 84% of users would stop a purchase on an unsafe site. A secure browsing experience increases retention.Protect your Users’ InformationWith HTTPS, you protect your users’ data. A data breach like Marriott’s or Facebook’s can be prevented by maintaining HTTPS status with SSL/TLS certificate.Get the lock icon77% of visitors worry about misuse of their data online. The lock icon builds trust and credibility.HTTPS is Necessary for AMPMobile optimization and the use of AMP require a secure site with SSL.More effective PPC campaignsHTTPS helps reduce bad ad practices and increase conversions. Google Ads began automatically redirecting HTTP search ads to HTTPS in 2018 and warned advertisers to stop using HTTP address for landing pages.Corrected data in Google AnalyticsAn increase in direct traffic can be due to HTTPS sending visits to HTTP, which Google Analytics reports as direct traffic. This is also important during a migration.https://ift.tt/yi6oWrs page speedPage speed is a crucial factor in digital marketing today. It has a significant impact on:How long visitors stay on your site.How many of them become paying customers.How much you pay per click in paid searches.Where you rank in organic search results.Unfortunately, many websites perform poorly in terms of page speed, which has a direct negative impact on their revenue.There are countless tasks that digital marketers can spend their days on, and there is never enough time to do them all. As a result, some tasks get pushed to the background.Optimizing page speed is one of those tasks that is often put off. This is understandable because many people do not fully understand the importance of this often overlooked factor, thus failing to see the value of investing time and money to improve it by just a few seconds.What may seem like an insignificant amount of time to some marketers, including those who focus solely on search engine optimization, has proven to be significant, according to data from both industry giants and our own analytics.Switch to a good hosting providerIn our efforts to reduce costs, especially given the cumulative costs of everyday tools such as Raven, SEMrush, Moz and more, it sometimes seems like we are carrying an extra financial burden.Many opt for affordable, shared web hosting that houses numerous sites, like a compact car full of circus clowns. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of performance.Your site may be accessible, as with most hosts, but slow load times can discourage visitors and keep them from making purchases.Some may not see this problem, but for visitors, every second counts.For users, a Web site visit is purposeful, whether for information or a purchase. Any delay can negatively affect their experience, causing them to leave the site without taking action.How much difference can it make?Amazon research found that even an unremarkable delay of 100 milliseconds resulted in a 1% drop in sales. A similar trend was observed at Walmart.So this almost imperceptible time margin has a significant impact. Consider how much greater the impact is with an even longer load time.A fast website is not only good for your sales, it also improves your search engine rankings and lowers your advertising costs.In short, a slow website can be detrimental in competition. So choose a web host that offers speed at a reasonable price, such as those for WordPress websites.By researching and testing yourself, you can choose a web host that satisfies both your audience and search engines.Reduce the number of HTTP callsEach separate file type required to display and run a Web page, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images and fonts, requires a separate HTTP request. The more requests, the slower the page loads.The problem is often in the structure of the website: many themes load multiple CSS and JavaScript files. Some, such as jQuery or FontAwesome, are even loaded from a remote server, which significantly increases loading time.This is exacerbated by additional CSS and JavaScript files added by plugins. The result is soon a good number of HTTP requests just for CSS and JavaScript files.Add in the individual requests for each image on a page, and the number of requests adds up quickly.To reduce this, you can do the following:Combine JavaScript files into a single file.Merge CSS files into one file.Limit or eliminate plugins that load their own JavaScript and/or CSS files.Use sprites for commonly used images.Whenever possible, use a font such as HeroIcons instead of image files, because then only one file needs to be loaded.Activate compressionBy enabling GZIP compression, you can significantly reduce the download time of your HTML, CSS and JavaScript files. This is because these files are downloaded as smaller, compressed files and then decompressed in the user’s browser.Don’t worry, your visitors don’t have to do anything extra for this. All modern browsers support GZIP and process it automatically with all HTTP requests. This leads to faster loading times of your web pages, without requiring extra effort from your visitors.Enable browser cachingBy enabling browser caching, elements of a Web page are stored in your visitors’ browsers.When they revisit your site or visit another page, their browser can load the page without having to send a new HTTP request to the server for the cached elements.Once the first page is loaded and its elements stored in the user’s cache, only new elements need to be downloaded on subsequent pages.This can significantly reduce the number of files that need to be downloaded during a typical browser session, leading to faster load times and a better user experience.Minimize resourcesMinimizing your CSS and JavaScript files by removing unnecessary white space and comments reduces file size and thus download time.Fortunately, you don’t have to perform this process manually, as there are several online tools available that can convert a file into a smaller, minimized version.There are also several WordPress plugins that replace the links in the head of your website for your regular CSS and JavaScript files with a minimized version, without modifying your original files. Some popular caching plugins are:W3 Total CacheWP Super CacheWP RocketIt may take some effort to get the settings right because minimization can often break CSS and JavaScript. Therefore, test your Web site thoroughly after you minimize everything.Prioritize content above the foldYour Web site can appear to load faster if it is programmed to prioritize content above the fold, or content visible before a visitor scrolls down.This means making sure that elements that appear above the fold are also near the beginning of the HTML code so that the browser can download and display them first.It is also important to place any CSS and JavaScript needed to display that area inline rather than in an external CSS file.https://ift.tt/nlcMFa6 media filesWith the use of mobile devices with high-quality cameras and convenient content management systems such as WordPress, many people load up photos immediately without realizing that they are often at least four times larger than necessary.This slows down your website considerably, especially for mobile users.Optimizing media files on your website can greatly improve your page speed and is relatively easy, so a good investment of time. Optimizing ImagesChoose the ideal format: JPG is perfect for photographic images, while GIF or PNG are better for images with large areas in a single color. Use 8-bit PNG for images without transparent background and 24-bit for images with transparent background. Even better, but use the latest format webp.Scale images. If an image on your website displays 800 pixels wide, it makes no sense to use an image 1600 pixels wide.Compress imagesIn addition to being a top image editing program, Adobe Photoshop also offers excellent image compression capabilities starting at a few dollars per month. You can also use free WordPress plugins such as EWWW Image Optimizer, Smush and TinyJPG, which automatically compress uploaded images.However, this doesn’t get you there yet. To really optimize media on your website, you need to provide images that are sized to fit the screen, rather than simply resizing them.There are two ways to do this, depending on how an image is implemented:Images within your website’s HTML can be provided with src set, allowing the browser to select, download and display the appropriate image based on the screen size of the device a visitor is using.Images placed via CSS, usually as background images, can be served using media queries to select the appropriate image based on the screen size of the device a visitor is using.Optimize videoChoose the best format. MP4 is usually the best choice because it provides the smallest file size.Offer the optimal size (dimensions) tailored to the screen size of visitors.Remove the audio track if the video is used as a design element in the background.Compress the video file. I often use Adobe Premiere or even better Adobe Media Encoder, but Camtasia is also a good option.Shorten the video length.Consider uploading videos to YouTube or Vimeo instead of hosting them locally, and use their iframe embed code.Using Caching and CDNsCaching allows your Web server to store a static copy of your Web pages so that they can be delivered more quickly to a visitor’s browser.A CDN (Content Delivery Network) allows these copies to be distributed across servers worldwide. This allows a visitor’s browser to download pages from the server closest to their location. This greatly improves the speed of your page.Some popular CDNs are:CloudflareBunnyKinstaMicrosoft AzureGoogle CloudAmazon AWShttps://ift.tt/hovfPnm
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