How to avoid the Vanishing Act and Dreaded 404 Error

Published on by Jean M. Cogdell

I wish there was a fool-proof way!

But I doubt there is. Not totally. 

Here’s what happens.

A blogger gives a little bit of information. “Hey guys, look what I found. Go to this other website link and read all about it.”

But, what I didn’t understand was that weeks could pass before you read my blog and that “other website” might have moved or gone kaput. Which happens more and more as people tire of blogging or switch blogging platforms. 

Depending on the server, you’ll get something like this but the message will be the same. Nobody is home. 

404 page

Readers got the Vanishing Act and Dreaded 404 Error which made me look bad.

Not wanting to bill myself as some writing guru I was doing this more and more on my blog. However, recently I found myself irritated with another website when every link gave me the 404 finger. I clicked away and unfollowed. 

Which got me to thinking. I know dangerous ground, me thinking. But, if I felt that way maybe my readers felt that way too. I don’t want unhappy readers.

Now don’t get me wrong!

I love linkbacks and reblogs! 

Linkbacks and reblogs are the strongest forms of flattery for a blogger.

There had to be a solution.

So what to do?

I’ve decided that I’ll do my best to…

  • Share here on my website what I learn.
  • Share why I think my readers might find it important too.
  • Share the source link at the end of the post. After all, I’m not an expert but I firmly believe credit should be given where credit is due. 
  • And last but not least I’m going to try to make my posts shorter. 🙂

Do broken links bother you?

Do they discourage you from visiting websites again?

Talk to me  and thanks for stopping by my blog.
You can find me on Twitter @jeancogdellhttps://twitter.com/jeancogdell, Facebook at jean.cogdell and Amazon.com, stop by and say hey! Please remember to click and share this post with your Twitter peeps and Facebook fans.

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15 thoughts on “How to avoid the Vanishing Act and Dreaded 404 Error”

  3. Yes, Jean, too many broken links and I will unfollow a blog.

    I recently wrote a post about why reblogging and rescheduling blog posts work and pointed out that if a blogger reschedules a post that is only a few days old then all links to it will stop working. I only found this out as I pointed out to a blogger I was following that all the links to his posts were broken. He told me that he kept rescheduling the posts on a daily basis just to get more readers. However, (and as I pointed out to him), if it takes somebody a few days before they read the post then they’ll get an error message when they click on the link. I recommended only to reschedule existing blog posts once they are six months old as by then the links to them will probably stop being used.

    If a link is broken I’ll inform a blogger, but if it keeps happening then I start to get a little fed up with hunting for the post on their blog.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Exactly my point. Thank you very much. But if the writer would just take a minute and tell us why they thought the link so important at least we would have a clue. Right? And our time wouldn’t be a total waste. Okay stepping down now.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I only include links to posts that are relevant to what I am writing about and when using them I always say why I am including them. They are a great way of promoting other bloggers but should only be used if necessary. If we want to promote other bloggers in any other way then I’ve always written posts such as “10 Blogs You Should Follow” or something similar.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Yes ! Yesterday a gremlin crept
    Stole my blog link while i slept.
    Not a clue what I had done
    A sulked a bit and then for fun,
    I asked Hugh to help me out.
    If he did, I’d give his blog a shout.

    He reblogged mine i pinged back his
    A blank link, was i taking the psss.
    But no matter what i tried,
    the link had up and died.
    Hughesnews i could not link
    He must have thought
    I was a stink.
    But then the gremlins
    Dipaseared,
    all was as I feared
    Back to normal
    With no way
    To work out how it
    For two hours
    Had gone astray.

    Liked by 1 person

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