Introduction to Errors in Website

Usually, errors in website occur because of an insecure internet connection or an outdated webpage or a damaged link. Almost everyone would have faced the problem while accessing a website on the net. There is no single person in the world who would say that they have had error-free experience over the net. So errors in website are more common. You just need to find out the answers to the following questions

How long has it been down?
What are the main reasons for the problem?
How to fix the problem as soon as possible?

This article will explain to you some commonly occurring errors in the net and the solution to fix it.

Now many of you will have a question in your mind.

And Why do I need to know about the errors?

But knowing about the errors in website and their solution will help you to gain knowledge and it will help the webmasters and the network administrators to know the most common problems in net and how to deal with it. Sometimes to fix the problem all you need to do is verify the settings and run a simple maintenance task. By doing this you can increase the system’s security and the speed of transferring data over the net.

Quick and easy to fix errors in website

There are three main pillars of a conversion focused website – Qualified traffic, easy navigation and good web strategy. These pillars can sometimes be distracted by some minor issues on the website. These minor issues are considered like vehicle maintenance. They need to be fixed frequently to have a smooth running. Listed below are few easy to fix errors on website.

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Spelling errors in website

If you have any grammatical or typing mistake in the contents of your site then your website will look unprofessional. So you need to be very cautious before the contents are published on the website. If you need to produce quality website content then you need to have an editor.

Broken Links

If you have broken links in your website then your user may lose interest in your website. To fix a broken link use tool instead of doing manually. It will save you a lot of time and resources.

Outdated Copyright

You might be surprised to see a outdated copyright in others website. Then what about yours? What will be your user’s reaction to an outdated copyright? This will give a feeling to your customer that you are out of the business.

Broken images

Missing or broken images is an easy to identify and quick to fix error. You need to have a content management system (CMS) to find out such errors and rebuild it properly.

Non-Friendly URL’s

Friendly URL – www.website.com/blog/common-website-errors-to-fix
Non Friendly URL – www.website.com/ CGI-bin/gen.pl?id=8&view=standard
Non-Friendly URL’s are hard to remember and they drive less traffic to the site. They are also hard to share or link to social networks. But changing the URL is a big deal and you need to plan accordingly before changing it.

Canonicalization

Canonicalization is when you are able to access your site through two different ways. This will create problems like duplicate content and will also reduce the traffic to your site.

http://www.website.com

http://website.com

Duplicate content

If you have the exact content in more than one place in your site then do remove those contents. This problem more frequently occurs in large sites where they have thousands of pages. This is a common SEO mistake.

JavaScript errors

You need to check out frequently whether the drop-down menus work properly, is the navigation in the site easy, how do animations work. If any problem persists then it means that your JavaScript is not working properly. These errors on website will affect the user experience and it will reduce the website performance.

Slow Loading pages

The speed of each page of your site is the main factor which search engines will consider. Slow web pages will lead to high bounce rate and low conversion rate. Use tools to find out if there is an issue with the website that makes the site slower.

No Form Validation

Proper Validation will help the users to complete the forms faster and easier. Proper form validation will make sure that the users provide the complete information and fulfill the conversion.

Browser Specific Errors

You should observe how each browser will react to your website and find out what does not work properly. There are several tools available in the market to let you know how your website functions in different browsers and multiple versions of browsers. Use one such tool to avoid the Browser specific errors on website.

Always don’t let the minor issues turn into major issues. Try to fix the small errors in the short term and plan for the harder ones in the long run.

Client Side Errors

Following are the client side errors:

400 Bad Request

This error occurs when the server is not able to understand the request. It happens when the rules of the HTTP protocol is neglected by the browser. This causes difficulty to the server to process the request. This error occurs due to one of the following reason

some problem on the client side
lack of internet connection
defective browser
caching problem

So before contacting the site owner check your system and clear your cache’s.

401 – Authorization required

This error occurs when the site is password protected by the client. 401 authorization error does not provide an error message but it shows a pop up asking the user to enter the login id and password. If you know the login and password details than you can enter the protected site. If you don’t have the details then you will be taken to the Authorization Required error page.

If you are an owner of a website and if you wanted to protect your site using a password then you can add the password protection using the c panel account.

403 Forbidden

This error occurs when the server is able to understand the request but it refuses to accept due to some reason. When the user gets this error message it means that the server rejects the request with No explanation.

The common reason for this error is the site owner does not allow the browser to have access to the file directory structure of the site. Another reason is the specific file that the browser wanted to view does not have the necessary permission.

A site owner can also use this for some security reasons. It can protect the site from being hacked. Site owners can use this option in the C panel by using

Advanced Menu – Index Manager – No indexing option

404 – Not Found

404 is the most common HTTP error code. The web browser shows this error when the server does not find anything on the requested location. There are two main reasons for this error – either the URL is typed wrongly or the permalink structure of the site is changed. This error is shown in the top level of the URL’s when the site has recently moved to a new location.

404 is seen as a major factor affecting the SEO of the site. It often increases the bounce rate of your site. One best way to avoid this error is to use 301 permanent redirects and 302 temporary redirects.

408 – Request Time-out

If the request of the client takes too long time to process then the server times out and closes the connection. In such cases, the browser will display 408 Request Timeout error message. This happens when the server does not get the full request from the user side within that particular time frame. This error can also occur because of the heavy workload on the server or the client’s system and a temporary internet surge. This error can be fixed by reloading the page using the F5 button.

410 Gone

410 error closely resembles 404 error. Both the error means that the server could not find the requested file. The only difference is that 404 error gives a substitute target file whereas 410 error shows a permanent condition. 410 error means that the file was made unavailable with some intention by the owner as he wants to remove the incoming links from the web. 410 means permanent unavailability of the file.

410 and 404 are treated differently by the browsers. It is crucial for the website owners to differentiate between the 410 and 404 errors on website to make the site search engine friendly.

Server errors in website

500 – Internal Server errors in website

500 is the most common server error. This error happens when the server faces an unexpected condition that prevents it from fulfilling the request. This error code is returned when no other server-side 5XX error codes can be used.

To solve this error you can reload the page, clean the cache, clean the browser cookies and restart the browser.

If you get this error then you can contact your host provider as the reason may be a permission error, corrupt file or a memory limit. In WordPress sites, this error can occur due to a third party plugins. You can easily resolve this issue.

502 – Bad Gateway

502 error message shows that there exists a communication problem between the servers. When the client connects to the server that has to access an upstream server then this error occurs. When you get this error when the server receives an invalid response from an upstream server.

In this error, it normally means that both the servers don’t accept the protocol to exchange the data. This is because one of the servers is wrongly configured or programmed. To solve this contact your host provider.

503 – Service Temporarily Unavailable

You get this error message whenever there is a temporary overload on the server or when the server is under a scheduled maintenance. 503 error means that the web server is currently not available. This error is temporary and can be resolved in a short period of time.

If you are a site owner then you should be more aware of the 503 error to properly maintain the site. As a site owner if you don’t do scheduled site maintenance in the correct way then it will definitely affect your search engine ranking.

504 – Gateway Timeout

504 Gateway Timeout error is again a server to server communication problem in the backend. This error also indicates that there is a higher level server that serves to send the data to the server of the client. The lower level server does not receive a timely response from the upstream server.

504 Gateway Time Out error messages shows slow communication between the servers and it mostly happens when the higher end server is completely down.

This error is also the same as 408 Request Time Out error. But the difference here is that it does not happen between the client and server but the communication problem happens between two servers in the back end.

504 error can be solved only by the people who have access to the network as it happens in the backend. This error can also be solved by refreshing the page after some time if the host providers are working on the same on the other side.

Listed below are few of the HTML error codes and their description

100 – Continue

101 – Switching Protocols

200 – Ok

201 – Created

202 – Accepted

203 – Partial Information

204 – No content

205 – Reset Content

206 – Partial Content

300 – Multiple Choices

301 – Moved Permanently

302 – Moved Temporarily

303 – See other

304 – Not modified

305 – Use proxy

402 – Payment Required

405 – Method not allowed

406 – Not acceptable

413 – Request entity too large

414 – Request URL too large

415 – Unsupported Media type

505 – HTTP version not supported

Conclusion

Anytime you access a website it is more common that there will be a lot which will go wrong. From this article, you would have known the most common reasons and their solution. Fixing these mistakes can help you to deliver a much more user-friendly and search engine friendly website. It’s not going to be easy but it definitely is going to be worth it.