Looking at web traffic & stats gets kinda boring sometimes, unless you're really into the numbers for some personal or professional reason. Web geek talk to follow. Huh?
404 ERROR, everybody dislikes these broken link pages all over the web (& any advertising that accompanies it). NOT finding what you're looking for gives some no hope of every enjoying their online surfing experience.
After a decade online, thousands of photos & 2000 HTML pages later, Total Escape has some major cleaning house to do. Ouch! Earlier this year 49% of my users were experiencing "Page Not Found" errors, cuz of the site revamp. Bummer!
Converting the entire web site from old skool HTML files (some dating back to 1998), to a new MySQL database proved to be the quite the task for us, as it was a learn-as-we-go kinda experience.
In late 2006 programmer Liz & I launched the new lodges data. That's 3000 independent California lodges & all the towns associated with them. 670 towns & destinations in California for you to enjoy. Rolling out the new towns database this Spring season shows big signs of improvement in the flow of info.
That high percentage of the 404 errors made me think my Escapers must be getting pretty aggravated just trying to use my web site, Total Escape. Actually finding what you are looking for shouldn't be a treacherous experience. Nature is free & accessing it should not be a hassle. That where UI comes in. That a "user interface" - how the person interacts with a web site.
I am happy to report as summertime traffic builds, Total Escape 404 errors have decreased significantly in the last 6 months. From almost 25,000 in January to approx. 10,000 in May. Continuing to scour my site for more fixes, I will to cut this 404 figure in half again before the end of the year, so you can experience a better Total Escape.
(BTW, I welcome all feedback)
HTTP Error codes / Hits / Percent of Traffic
JAN 2007
404 Document Not Found 24766 49.1 %
FEB 2007
404 Document Not Found 16940 21.3 %
MAR 2007
404 Document Not Found 21119 7.8 %
APR 2007
404 Document Not Found 18610 0.7 %
MAY 2007
404 Document Not Found 9890 0.6 %
JUNE 2007
404 Document Not Found 6225 0.1 %
