No matter how much time and effort you put into your website design, there is one element that you can never fully account for the Internet user. And no matter how well you plan, accidents and errors can always occur. A visitor to your site may not do as expected or may simply do something wrong. By incorporating contingency design into your plastic surgery marketing plan, you can provide your visitors with assistance when they need it and lend your site an extra level of professionalism. The following are some examples of contingency design:
- Custom Error Page. Instead of the standard 404 Page Not Found’ error page, design your own custom error page. Make sure that it follows your same overall site design and theme. Include necessary information that helps your visitors get back on track, such as a link to your homepage and sitemap, your standard navigation menu, and even a site search engine. Remember, too, that there are many other error pages and reasons for those errors. You can create several error pages, error 401, 402, 403 and so on. Individual pages for individual errors will help your visitors understand what went wrong and how to get back on track.
- Search Errors. If you have a search feature on your website, errors can always occur when visitors submit queries. Like your error page, be sure to create your own search error or search failure page. Do everything you can to help your visitors find what they’re looking for, such as making suggestions for common misspellings.
- Back Button. Don’t disable your visitors’ back button or any other browser control. Make sure that your visitors can move around as needed, whether it’s back or forward, and that they can refresh the page if needed.
- Errors In Forms. You may include forms on your site for a number of reasons, for visitors to contact you or post to a forum. Errors may occur with forms if visitors enter incorrect data. Rather than simply saying incorrect data’, make sure that the exact error is highlighted and clearly displayed. This will keep visitors from wasting time searching for the error or even re-entering all of the information.