Thread: 404 errors and deleting posts answer?

404 errors and deleting posts answer?

Sorry to be banging on about this today, but it is at the top of my to do list!
We are setting our users to authors which will not allow deleting of ads.

I have just been reading an excellent book called wordpress 3 Site Blueprints. They cover CP in there and come up with some answers!!!!!

The problem of deleting customers own ads seems to have been possibly addressed?
As I see it if customers were allowed to delete their own ads, search engines would still have links to those pages and would return a 404, which would annoy the user. The idea in the book show a simple method of overcoming the 404 problem by directing any of the now dead links to the web sites home page.

This was talked about in the book whilst discussing pruning ads, I assume that a facility enabling customers to delete their own ads would produce a similar effect leaving dead links on search engines until they updated their links.

Would this not answer the concerns of displaying 404 errors after they delete one of their own ads?

The code they suggest is

<?php
header("Status: 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: http://example.com");
?>


which should be put in the 404.php file

I am not a programmer but can see what they are trying to do.
Guess the better ideal would be to direct them to a page saying that the ad is no longer available with a link to the man site?

comments?