PP 299: Redirect Links and 404 Pages

Kim Sutton Well, I’ve said it once and I’ve probably said it a few hundred times on the Positive Productivity Podcasts already that positive productivity is not about perfection. And just this week, I sent out an email to my list, and I had broken links in it. Well, it’s not really that I had broken links. However, I was using redirect links. And my Infusionsoft account apparently did not like redirects. If you’re not familiar with what redirect links are, let me give you an example. When I tell you about some of my favorite tools on the podcast, I may be able to tell you to go to thekimsutton.com/focuster to find out about my new favorite productivity tool. And the reason why I use a link like that is, well, number one, to be totally honest, it’s an affiliate link. And it’s a lot easier to tell you to go to thekimsutton.com/focuster, than to remember what the actual affiliate link is. In number two, if that link changes in the future, all I need to do is go into my redirect plugin on my website and change where that link is pointing to. I don’t need to go back through hundreds of blog articles and podcasts to change it in every single location. Now I have to give a shout-out to Cliff Ravenscraft because he also did tell me about pretty links. But by the time he told me about pretty links I already had the redirection WordPress plugin on my site and that is by John Godley, if you’re looking for a plug in that does this. Again, it’s redirection by John Godley and I’ll put a link in the show notes. Which by the way, you can find it that thekimsutton/pp299. So anyway, I found out this week both through my own email and also through an issue that a client was having that Infusionsoft does not like redirection links. So if you are an Infusionsoft user, I always recommend until they figure out a way to make this work, that you use the actual link in your emails rather than a redirection link. So I sent out an email to my list and I got a couple responses saying, Hey, Kim, those links don’t work. And I was thinking, Oh, and I checked, and they were right. And they were going to my 404 page. But when I looked at my 404 page, it was not how I wanted it to look. Listeners, you always want to make sure that your 404 page on your site is as awesome looking as the rest of your pages. Okay, well, maybe not that awesome, but give people something interesting to see. Give them something to opt in to, tell them more about your programs. But don’t just leave them hanging with this link is no good page. That’s not going to get you anywhere. So on my 404 page, now I have opt ins. I have the 30 day abundance challenge and the seven day positive productivity planner, I have a link to my Facebook group, and I have a link to something else but I honestly can’t remember what that is right now. But the point is, oh, it’s pointing to the podcast. I guess that would be smart of me to remember, especially considering I’m recording a podcast episode right now. Anyway, getting back to this podcast, give your people something to do just in case they type the URL wrong or if you have something go wrong in one of your emails. Bad links don’t need to take people nowhere but make sure that when they take people somewhere, you’re giving them something worth seeing. If you’re looking for a great custom 404 page plugin to use for your WordPress site, I’m using one called 404 page. Your smart custom 404 error page plugin by Peter Raschendorfer. I hope I’m getting his name right. You know I’m not always right about names, but positive productivity is not about perfection. So today, I want to challenge you to go set up a good looking 404 page for your site. And with all this said, go forth and make it a positive and a productive day.