Thank you to all who submitted your answers on my previous post Which One Would You Choose; where I asked visitors to select from a choice of four site snapshots, which site they would complete a ESTA form on.

The lines are now closed and the votes are in…  Let’s see how the people chose…

Most people chose A.

The official site to complete an ESTA on is D. If you completed a form on D it would of been free and would be guaranteed to be processed. If you completed a form on any of the other three you would of had to pay approximately £30 – £40. These 3 sites are typical of many that are charging people to complete ESTA forms.

Official Sites Versus Unofficial Sites

The results here reflect reports that more people are paying to complete ESTA forms from unofficial sites. It’s important to note that the people who complete the forms and end up paying for them are not stupid. They are victims of well worked campaigns combined with efficient design.  Here are some design related reasons I believe people are paying to complete forms on the unofficial sites rather than for free on the official site:

Colour Schemes/Look & Feel

A lot of the unofficial sites appear have utilised ‘American’ colour schemes (reds and blues), flags and American imagery:

Whereas the official site is prodominently green which most would not immediately associate with America:

It’s possible that some people are electing to use the ‘unofficial’ sites as the appear to have more synergy with the USA, and therefore people think that they look more official.

Calls to Action & Usability
There are clear calls to action on the unofficial sites. Well placed and noticeable buttons labelled:  Click Here, Instant Download, ESTA Form or Continue, help make it easy for the site visitor to complete what they want to do, in this case fill out an ESTA form.

The buttons and links are placed in a combination of places some at the top of the web page, some at the bottom but they all have at least one call to action that appears on screen as soon as the page appears on screen.

However, the official site has no clear call to action; you have to work really hard to discover what you have to do next.  In fact (as illustrated below) you have to scroll about 1600 pixels down the page (i.e. well below the fold – if you consider that the average screen displays 1020 pixels) before you even see the apply button! Ordinarily we’d recommend that calls to action appear both above and below the fold.

It’s possible then that some come to the official site, but lose confidence as it’s not immediately apparent what they need to do.

Assurance and Confidence
Here, both the official and unofficial sites do pretty well. Most of the sites in this example use checklists or step by step examples . Each help to give an impression of transparency and encourage confidence in the site.

Example1:

Example 2:

Conclusion

One of the most important things to learn from this example is the importance of call to action and usability. Although  27% chose the official site based on a snapshot. Had the test been based on visiting the sites it may have been even less, seeing as visitors have to scroll down nearly twice the length of the screen to even find the apply button.

Every site needs a call to action whether it is to fill out a form, generate a phone call or submit a vote. The clearer the call to action is, the better the site will convert.

Similarly, consideration needs to be given to site look and feel. Use of colour and imagery, and theming to meet visitor’s expectations of how a site should look are key.

Suggestions for the Official Site

If I was tasked with redesigning the form on the official site, I’d look specifically at the following areas:

1. The essential difference between the official site and the others is that it is free to complete the ESTA form. Yet this is not mentioned on the the official site . The first thing I would do is alert the visitor that the form is free to complete on this site.
2. I would also address the call to action. I would place an apply now button close to the top of the page with enough white space around it for it to stand out.
3. I would also look to address the design / colour scheme in order to reflect an outsider’s perception of “America”

Within this post I’ll be explaining what a redirect is, the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect and how to set up redirects yourself. Right, let’s go:

What is a redirect?

A redirect is a command which automatically sends visitors to an alternative web page rather than the one they typed into their browser.

Why do you need to use redirects?

From time to time you may need to either delete a page, or change it’s URL. If you just go ahead and do this without a redirect, any visitor to the page will get a 404 which can be bad for users and for SEO (see our really rather good guide to managing broken links and 404’s and  for more information).

Why are they important?

Redirects help users by automatically taking them to an alternative page, or indeed the same page if you’ve simply changed the URL. Likewise, redirect also tells search engines that the page has moved.

Plain English Definitions of those Pesky Numerical Wotsits

What’s the difference between a 301 and a 302? What’s a 404? How’s a 404 differ from a 500? Be confused no longer:

301 – Permanent Redirect: This tells the search engines that the page has moved permanently. Over time authority from the old page will pass to the new version.

302 – Temporary Redirect: This tells the search engine that the page has moved temporarily. As such no authority from the old page will pass to the new version.

404 - Error Page/File Not Found: This tells the search engine that the web page cannot be found

500 – Internal Server Error: This means there is a problem with the code which is affecting the server. This may have been caused by incorrect coding or command set up. 

To 301 or 302… Which Redirect Should I Use?

1. 301 – A permanent redirect should be used if you’ve changed the URL permanently. For SEO purposes it rocks as it helps maintain your natural search listing and indexing by the search engines (NB you might see a drop in rankings initially, but they should recover).
2. 302 – A temporary redirect should be used only in the event that it’s a temporarily URL change. For SEO purposes it sucks as it passes no authority – therefore you might find that your lose rankings.

How do you set up redirects?

1. Open Notepad to create a new document.

2. Insert one of the following commands into notepad with your website URL address.

Temporary redirect
redirect 302 /old-webpage.html http://www.website.co.uk/new-webpage.html

Permanent redirect
redirect 301 /old-webpage.html http://www.website.co.uk/new-webpage.html

3. Save the notepad file as an HTACCESS file. You can do this by saving the file with the name .htaccess.

 4. Make sure to select ‘All files’ in ‘Save as type’.

5. Open your FTP for your website. (Note: You will need to open the file in SFTP to be able to upload your HTACCESS file. You may need to enter a password to be able to log into the server.)

6. Upload the HTACCESS file to the root of your server. This is usually in the www folder on the server.

7. Test the web page to see that it is redirecting. (If the web page redirects from the old address to the new address, then the redirect is working.)

Having problems?

I’m still seeing the same web page even though I have uploaded the htaccess file. Have I done something wrong?

The redirect to the web page is probably incorrect. Check that you have put in the correct web page address. Also check your slashes ‘/’ and the web page language extension – htm, html, php, asp, aspx etc.

I’m receiving a 500 internal server error. What did I do wrong?

There is probably incorrect formatting in the HTACCESS file. Check the file for spacing and typing errors.

Hopefully now you’re good to go, but of course if you do have any queries please let me know via the comments.

Image source: Lumaxart

Scenario:

You need to complete an ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation) form in order to travel to the States. You don’t know the official site, so you type esta form into your favourite search engine. Below are four screen shots taken from the top sites that appeared on Google for esta form:

A)

A

B)

B

C)

C

D)

D

Now without cheating (i.e. don’t go and find out which is the official site) please select the one you would choose to submit your ESTA:

I’ll publish the results of the survey, reveal which is the official site and examine why choosing the wrong one of these four could prove costly next week…

Within this post we’ll be looking at broken links and 404 error pages – what they are, how they impact users and SEO, how to find them and perhaps most importantly, some ideas on how you might go about dealing with them.

What are broken links & 404 error pages?

Broken links occur when web pages are deleted or moved but the link to the old address still exists.  When a user clicks on the broken link, the page cannot be found, so a 404 error page is displayed.

What does a 404 error page do?

A 404 error page tells the search engines and your web server that a web page cannot be found, this might be because it no longer exists or the url has been changed.

What do 404 error pages mean for SEO?

A 404 page tells the search engine that the page no longer exists. If the page genuinely no longer exists, and you no longer wish to rank for the terms targeted on the page, then that’s fine – over time the search engines will remove the page from their indexes. However, if the page does still exist and you still wish to rank for the terms targeted then you have a problem.

In the event that the page does still exist, but you have moved it, (or changed the url), then in order to preserve your ranking, and avoid returning a 404 error page, you will need to redirect the old url to the new one. How? If the page is moving temporarily, you should use a 302 redirect. If the page is moving permanently you should use a 301 redirect.

What do 404 error pages mean for users?

404 error pages can annoy users and cause them to leave your site as they are unable to navigate to the page which they wish to view. Clearly for this reason alone it’s best to minimise the number of broken links on your site.

How to find broken links on you website:

So how do you know if you’ve got broken links? There are many broken link checkers out there, but I tend to use Google Web Master Tools. If you haven’t done so already, set up a Google Web Master Tools account , then submit your sitemap. Google will crawl and index your website, and if there are any broken links, Web Master Tools will show you which links are broken and returning a 404 web page error.

So now you know which pages are returning 404 errors, what next?

How should you deal with 404’s on your site?

From time to time, you will need to delete pages from your site. For example, if you are an ecommerce site, and you stop selling a particular product. In this instance, it is conceivable that a visitor may have bookmarked the page, in order to return later to purchase. However as you no longer sell that product, the page may no longer exist.

In this instance you have a couple of options:

1)  You might choose to 301 redirect an old product page to a similar product which you still stock; or a page which references the fact that you no longer sell the old product line, but this is the new product which will replace it.

2) Let the default 404 page be displayed.

3) Provide users with a custom 404 page, rather than the default one.  Custom 404 pages are a little more user friendly, and if you create a good one, hopefully you’ll keep the visitor on the site.

How to Create a Custom 404 error page
You can configure a custom 404 error page by inserting a default error page command in the HTACCESS file that is on your server. The HTACCESS file can normally be found in the root of the public html folder – an example is shown below:

You will then need to configure your HTACCESS file to display your custom 404 error page as the default error page for your website. Below is the code command to put in the HTACCESS file.

Once you have uploaded the custom 404 web page and configured the HTACCESS file, test it with URL address errors associated with your domain to see that it is functioning correctly.

For example; type www.(yourdomain).com/404test . Your customised 404 error page should display.

Custom 404 error page designs

When it comes to 404 pages, ultimately you can be as creative as you like. However, ideally the custom 404 should be in keeping with the design of the rest of your website and should aid your visitors in finding what they are looking for.

Examples:

1. Apology with a home page link
You can offer website users a brief apology and lead them back to the home page.

2. Apology with a drop down menu
We’re sorry, but the web page that you are looking for is no longer available. Please select a product from the following menu.

3. Apology with a link list option
We’re sorry, but the page you were looking for no longer exists. We recommend you try:

a) Option A
b) Option B
c) Option C

Below are a few examples of custom 404 error pages to get those creative juices flowing!

Image source: Luminous

  Image source : Mozilla

Seen some great custom 404 error pages? Hit up the comments and share them. Likewise let us know if you’ve got any further questions, or tips you’d like to share.

404 image credit : cbede

Many businesses recognise the potential value of corporate blogging both in terms of potential SEO benefits, and engaging with their customers. As such we’re finding ourselves installing blogs on a fairly regular basis.

Therefore we thought that it might be useful to create a ‘how to’ post to act as a guide for those installing and customising Wordpress.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this post, and if you’ve any other hints and tips to share please let us know via the comments.

Installing Wordpress

There are two ways to install a WordPress blog:

The easiest way, (if  it allows you to) is to install the blog through the control panel for your site. In the control panel click on the fantastico deluxe button, then on the left hand navigation under the title blog, click on the WordPress link, now click the new installation link that will appear on the page and follow the instructions provided on screen.

If you don’t have a control panel that allows you to automatically install a WordPress blog, you can manually install the blog. Instructions for this can be found on http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

Click on Fantastico, then on WordPress

Once WordPress is installed it will appear in a folder on your remote server (where the site is hosted). Download this folder to your computer.

For ease of explanation I have created a rudimentary template which you can view on www.gravytrain.co.uk/blog-test/

Example

Branding your Blog

You can then add your branding to the blog using the following URLs:

Logo:

http://www.gravytrain.co.uk/blog-test/wp-content/themes/default/images/logo.jpg

Banner:

http://www.gravytrain.co.uk/blog-test/wp-content/themes/default/images/banner-image.jpg

Customising a WordPress Blog

The folder containing the files you need to edit can be found using the following path from the blog folder: \your-blog-folder\wp-content\themes\default\

1. Open style.css in a text editor and replace everything on it with the code below.

2. Open header.php in a text editor. Below is the code that should replace the code between the <body> tags.

3. Now in the <header> section delete any styles containing kubrick.jpg or similar eg: #page { background: url(“<?php bloginfo(’stylesheet_directory’); ?>/images/kubrickbgwide.jpg”) repeat-y top; border: none; }.  Take care not to delete anything that isn’t a style as it may break the blog.

4. At this point, if you wish, you can edit the images and styles to suit your site. You will notice that the styles have been written inline. This is for example purposes, so you can and should move inlinestyles to the style sheet when you are happy with the look of the header.

5.Open single.php and add <?php get_sidebar(); ?> above the line containing <?php get_footer(); ?> (this ensures that the side menu appears when viewing a single blog entry which it doesn’t by default.)

6. If you wish you can edit the side menu and footer. Open sidebar.php and footer.php and have a play around. It is advisable to make a back up copy of these files if you are going to experiment.

That’s the look sorted, but there are still some other areas that need to be looked at.

SEO Considerations

For starters when you write blog posts the default URL extensions are not search friendly e.g. /page=2.php

This is unfriendly because it doesn’t display any information relating to the post. Search friendly WordPress URL’s will insert the date as well as the post titles instead. Example: http://www.gravytrain.co.uk/blog/2009/04/09/where-art-meets-web-design/

To check this, open a browser and sign into your blog, click on settings, then on perma links and select the option that gives the following url example: http://www.yoursite.co.uk/blog-test/2009/04/sample-post/

Now the post you write will generate search engine friendly URL’s.

Unfortunately this fix has now created another problem. If you have any previous posts and try clicking on them, you will see that they appear as broken links.

Don’t panic, here’s the fix:

Open or create a .htaccess file and paste the following code, make sure you change the word ‘blog’ if you used a different title for the folder you installed it to.  Type the correct URL where ‘yoursite’ is written:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /blog/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /blog/index.php [L]
</IfModule>
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^yoursite.co.uk [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.yoursite.co.uk/$1 [r=301,nc]

The second part of the code (rewrite) isn’t strictly to do with the blog but it helps with the SEO of your site.

Save and upload the .htaccess file to the root folder.

OK, just one more consideration and we’re there. This consideration is also SEO related. Depending on the installation of  the blog, it will sit on either a http://site.com/blog address or a http://www.site.com/blog address.

Ideally you want the blog to sit on http://www. with rest of the site.  This can be checked by looking at the address bar of  your blog and seeing if there is a ‘www.’ infront of the domain.

This is called canonicalisation – you can read more about the effects of this has here .

To move the blog to a http://www. location you have to open functions.php and paste the following code just after <?php at the top of the page. Again replace ‘yoursite’ with your own domain.

update_option(‘siteurl’,’http://www.yoursite.com/blog/’);
update_option(‘home’,’http://www.yoursite.com/blog/’);

Now upload it. Once you have checked it works delete the lines you just added, save and upload again. I know it sounds a little strange but it is important and the redirect will continue work.

Now you have finished and you can go sup your pint in the pub while basking in the glory of creating a customised blog!