Topic: Reports
Last Updated On: June 12, 2006
Applies to: MC Storefront Software, versions 4.1+

Understanding the 404 Error Log

The 404 Error Log contains the following elements:

File Requested
This is the file or resource (image file, javascript file, html file) that your site is trying to display or include on the page, but the file cannot be found. Reasons for the file not being found include, but are not limited to:
  • File Name - the file name in your link does not match the file on your server. The link is possibly misspelled or the file may have been renamed, but the link was not updated.
  • File Path - the file is not in the path specified. The file may have been moved into a different folder and the link was not updated to reflect this change.
Referring URL
The Referring URL is the URL that is calling the File Requested. This is the location that you want to fix, if possible. When the referring URL is not available, the text ‘No Refer’ is displayed. It is likely that ‘No Refer’ will be the most common referring URL within the report since this information is not always available.
Some scenarios that might cause a ‘No Refer’ would be:
  • The person accessing your site typed the URL of the File Requested directly into the address bar of their browser.
  • The person accessing your site had the URL of the File Requested bookmarked.
  • The visitor to your site uses security software, a firewall, etc. that removes their Referring URL information so this visitor appears as having no referring URL.
Total
When the 404 Report is sorted by the File Requested:
  • The Total is the total number of times the specific file was requested.

When the 404 Report is sorted by the Referring URL:
  • The Total is the number of 404 errors generated from a specific Referring URL

Correcting 404 Errors

To describe the steps to correcting a common 404 error, here is an example of a 404 error caused by an image.

404 Error Example

This entry in the 404 Report indicates that the homepage of the site (index.asp) includes an image (image.jpg) that cannot be displayed. On the homepage this would appear as a broken image. In this case you want to find out why this file is not being displayed. The first two things to check are:

  • Is the ‘image.jpg’ file in the ‘images’ folder? Perhaps the file is actually in the ‘ProductImages’ folder.
  • Is the filename of the image ‘image.jpg’? Perhaps the filename is actually ‘image_1.jpg’.

Open the File Manager and verify the image spelling and path. If the image is in a different folder than the ‘images’ folder, there are two basic options:

  • The link on the homepage, index.asp, (the Referring URL) can be changed.
  • The image can be added to the correct ‘images’ folder.

If the image filename is different than ‘image.jpg’ there are also two basic options:

  • Change the filename in the homepage, index.asp, (the Referring URL) to the correct image filename.
  • Rename the file in the File Manager to ‘image.jpg’.

Note: When making changes to the filename or moving a file to a new folder, be sure to consider if other pages use that file. For example, if the filename ‘image.jpg’ is changed within the File Manager, any other page that contained the image ‘image.jpg’ will now display a broken image and produce a 404 error. It is often easier to change the HTML in the Referring URL page.

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