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Friday, December 14, 2007
The latest version of
Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer (beta)
just added a neat feature to help users arrive at your website, or at least see your content, even
when things go awry.
It's frustrating for your users to mistype your URL and receive a generic
404 - Not Found or try to access a part of your site that might be down.
Regardless of your site being
useful and information-rich, when these issues arise,
most users just move on to something else. The latest release of Google Toolbar, however, helps
users by detecting site issues and providing alternatives.
Website Optimizer or Website Optimiser? The Toolbar can help you find it even if
you try "google.cmo" instead of "google.com".
3 site issues detected by Google Toolbar
404 errors with default error pages: When a visitor tries to reach your
content with an invalid URL and your server returns a short, default error message (less than
512 bytes), the Toolbar will suggest an alternate URL to the visitor. If this is a general
problem in your website, you will see these URLs also listed in the crawl errors section of your
Webmaster Tools account.
If you choose to set up a custom error page, make sure it returns result code 404.
The content of the 404 page can help your visitors to understand that they tried
to reach a missing page and provides suggestions regarding how to find the content they were
looking for. When a site displays a custom error page the Toolbar will no longer provide
suggestions for that site. You can check the behavior of the Toolbar by visiting an invalid URL
on your site with the Google Toolbar installed.
DNS errors: When a URL contains a non-existent domain name (like www.google.cmo), the
Toolbar will suggest an alternate, similar looking URL with a valid domain name.
Connection failures: When your server is unreachable, the Google Toolbar will
automatically display a link to the cached version of your page. This feature is only available
when Google is not explicitly forbidden from caching your pages through use of a
robotsmeta tag
or crawling is blocked on the page through the
robots.txt file. If your server is
regularly unreachable, you will probably want to fix that first; but it may also be a good idea
to check the Google cache for your pages by looking at the search results for your site.
Suggestions provided by the Google Toolbar
When one of the above situations is found, the Toolbar will try to find the most helpful links
for the user. That may include:
A link to the corrected URL: When the Toolbar can find the most probable, active URL to
match the user's input (or link they clicked on), it will display it right on top as a
suggestion. The correction can be somewhere in the domain name, the path or the file name (the
Toolbar does not look at any parameters in the URL).
A link to the cached version of the URL: When Toolbar recognizes the URL in the Google
cache, it will display a link to the cached version. This is particularly useful when the user
can't access your pages for some reason. As mentioned above, Google may cache your URLs provided
you're not explicitly forbidding this through use of a
robotsmeta tag or the
robots.txt file.
A link to the home page or HTML sitemap of your site: Sometimes going to the home page or
an HTML sitemap page is the best way to find the page that a user is really looking for. HTML
sitemap pages (these are not
XML Sitemap files) are generally
recognized based on the filename; if the Toolbar can find something called "sitemap" or similar,
this page will probably be recognized as the HTML sitemap page. Don't worry if your HTML sitemap
page is called something else; if a user decides to go to your home page, they'll probably find
it right away even if the Toolbar doesn't spot it.
A link to a higher level folder: Sometimes the home page or HTML sitemap page is too far
out and the user would be better off just going one step up in the hierarchy. When the Toolbar
can recognize that your site's structure is based on folders and sub-folders, it may suggest a
page one step back.
A search within your site for keywords found in the URL: It's a good practice to use
descriptive URLs. If the Toolbar can recognize keywords within the URL which the user tried to
access, it will link to a site-search with those keywords. Even if the URL has changed
significantly in the meantime, the search may be able to find similar content based on those
keywords. For instance, if the URL was https://example.com/party-gifts/holidays/
it will suggest a search for the words "party",
"gifts", and "holidays" within the site
example.com.
An open Google search box: If all else fails, there's always a chance that similar
content already exists elsewhere on the web. The Google web search can help your users to find
it—the Toolbar will help you by adding the keywords found in the URL to the search box.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle Toolbar's new feature helps users find content on your site even if they encounter errors like 404s, DNS issues, or connection problems.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe Toolbar suggests alternative URLs, cached versions, sitemaps, relevant searches, and higher-level folders to guide users.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIt uses the URL's keywords for searches within your site or on the web if the original page is inaccessible.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eCustom 404 error pages with helpful content can improve user experience and prevent the Toolbar from providing alternative suggestions.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebmasters can utilize Google Webmaster Tools, robots.txt, and robots meta tags to manage crawling and indexing, influencing the Toolbar's behavior.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["The Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer helps users navigate websites by addressing common issues. It detects `404` errors, DNS errors, and connection failures, offering solutions such as corrected URLs, cached pages, links to homepages/sitemaps, higher-level folders, or site-specific keyword searches. If all else fails, a general web search is offered. The Toolbar provides alternatives when a website has problems, enhancing user experience by finding the desired content.\n"],null,["| It's been a while since we published this blog post. Some of the information may be outdated (for example, some images may be missing, and some links may not work anymore).\n\nFriday, December 14, 2007\n\n\nThe latest version of\n[Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer (beta)](https://toolbar.google.com/T5/intl/en/index.html)\njust added a neat feature to help users arrive at your website, or at least see your content, even\nwhen things go awry.\n\n\nIt's frustrating for your users to mistype your URL and receive a generic\n`404 - Not Found` or try to access a part of your site that might be down.\n\n\nRegardless of your site being\n[useful and information-rich](/search/docs/essentials#design), when these issues arise,\nmost users just move on to something else. The latest release of Google Toolbar, however, helps\nusers by detecting site issues and providing alternatives.\n\n\nWebsite Optimi**z** er or Website Optimi**s**er? The Toolbar can help you find it even if\nyou try \"google.cmo\" instead of \"google.com\".\n\n3 site issues detected by Google Toolbar\n\n1. **`404` errors with default error pages** : When a visitor tries to reach your content with an invalid URL and your server returns a short, default error message (less than 512 bytes), the Toolbar will suggest an alternate URL to the visitor. If this is a general problem in your website, you will see these URLs also listed in the crawl errors section of your Webmaster Tools account. \n If you choose to set up a custom error page, make sure it returns result code `404`. The content of the `404` page can help your visitors to understand that they tried to reach a missing page and provides suggestions regarding how to find the content they were looking for. When a site displays a custom error page the Toolbar will no longer provide suggestions for that site. You can check the behavior of the Toolbar by visiting an invalid URL on your site with the Google Toolbar installed.\n2. **DNS errors**: When a URL contains a non-existent domain name (like www.google.cmo), the Toolbar will suggest an alternate, similar looking URL with a valid domain name.\n3. **Connection failures** : When your server is unreachable, the Google Toolbar will automatically display a link to the cached version of your page. This feature is only available when Google is not explicitly forbidden from caching your pages through use of a [robots `meta` tag](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots-meta-tag) or crawling is blocked on the page through the [robots.txt file](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro). If your server is regularly unreachable, you will probably want to fix that first; but it may also be a good idea to check the Google cache for your pages by looking at the search results for your site.\n\nSuggestions provided by the Google Toolbar\n\n\nWhen one of the above situations is found, the Toolbar will try to find the most helpful links\nfor the user. That may include:\n\n- **A link to the corrected URL**: When the Toolbar can find the most probable, active URL to match the user's input (or link they clicked on), it will display it right on top as a suggestion. The correction can be somewhere in the domain name, the path or the file name (the Toolbar does not look at any parameters in the URL).\n- **A link to the cached version of the URL** : When Toolbar recognizes the URL in the Google cache, it will display a link to the cached version. This is particularly useful when the user can't access your pages for some reason. As mentioned above, Google may cache your URLs provided you're not explicitly forbidding this through use of a [robots `meta` tag](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots-meta-tag) or the [robots.txt file](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro).\n- **A link to the home page or HTML sitemap of your site** : Sometimes going to the home page or an HTML sitemap page is the best way to find the page that a user is really looking for. HTML sitemap pages (these are not [XML Sitemap files](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview)) are generally recognized based on the filename; if the Toolbar can find something called \"sitemap\" or similar, this page will probably be recognized as the HTML sitemap page. Don't worry if your HTML sitemap page is called something else; if a user decides to go to your home page, they'll probably find it right away even if the Toolbar doesn't spot it.\n- **A link to a higher level folder**: Sometimes the home page or HTML sitemap page is too far out and the user would be better off just going one step up in the hierarchy. When the Toolbar can recognize that your site's structure is based on folders and sub-folders, it may suggest a page one step back.\n- **A search within your site for keywords found in the URL** : It's a good practice to use descriptive URLs. If the Toolbar can recognize keywords within the URL which the user tried to access, it will link to a site-search with those keywords. Even if the URL has changed significantly in the meantime, the search may be able to find similar content based on those keywords. For instance, if the URL was `https://example.com/party-gifts/holidays/` it will suggest a search for the words \"party\", \"gifts\", and \"holidays\" within the site `example.com`.\n- **An open Google search box**: If all else fails, there's always a chance that similar content already exists elsewhere on the web. The Google web search can help your users to find it---the Toolbar will help you by adding the keywords found in the URL to the search box.\n\n\nAre you curious already?\n[Download the Google Toolbar](https://toolbar.google.com/)\nfor your browser and give it a try on your site!\n\n\nTo discuss how this feature can help visitors to your site, jump in to our\n[Google Webmaster Help Group](https://support.google.com/webmasters/community);\nor for general Google Toolbar questions, try the\n[Toolbar group for Internet Explorer](https://groups.google.com/group/IEToolbar-Group/topics?start=)\nor the\n[Toolbar group for Firefox](https://groups.google.com/group/FFToolbar-Group/topics).\n\n\nBy [John Mueller](https://twitter.com/JohnMu),\nWebmaster Trends Analyst, Google Zürich"]]
