Predictive 404 Module

The Predictive 404 module acts as a "self-healing" SEO solution for mispelled URLs or broken links that result in 404 pages for your website. The Predictive 404 module gives you the ability to get back lost 404 page traffic and link equity by automatically 301 redirecting URLs to the next closest matching URL for users and search bots.

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Drupal Predictive 404 Module Overview

The Drupal Predictive 404 module uses string similarity measurements by way of the Levenshtein Distance metric, which measures the length and character differences between two sequences. Using this theory, the Predictive 404 module looks at the closest matching URL based on the letters used in the URL. Predictive 404 will then 301 redirect any 404 URL to the closest matching and most relevant URL, helping you to gain back lost link equity and improve user traffic and experience.

Predictive 404 Moduledrupal 7.x-1.0 (10-20-2011) Or visit our Drupal.org Predictive 404 Drupal module page (soon!)

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  Automatically 301 Dreaded 404 Pages!

  Gain more PageRank and give visitors and search engines what they're looking for -- the most relevant content match. Predictive 404 will solve those annoying 404 results that provide you with zero value.

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  Add to any Drupal Content Type

  Customize the Predictive 404 module to work with any content type on your Drupal website. You can add it to articles, blog posts, custom content types, or other types of content.

Main Predictive 404 Features

• Preserve PageRank (PR) in Google - Lets face it -- Google and other search engines do not prefer or like it when your website has dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of 404 pages for them to crawl. It wastes Google's crawling resources and provides nothing useful to users or search engines. Some top SEO experts also agree that too many 404s can cause harm to a website if not addressed and fixed.
• Levenshtein String Matching - The Predictive 404 module allows you to set the number of strings (characters) it should match to render the 301 redirect for 404s that would otherwise occur. For example, let's say you have a well-liked blog post on your Drupal website and hundreds of other blogs and sites link to it. The URL looks like this:
  yourcoolsite.com/seo-tools
  But what if 5 or 10 or more of those external sites linked to that same blog post using an incorrect or misspelled URL? We call them fat-fingered typos! Let's say the incorrect URL linked to was:
  yourcoolsite.com/seotools
  or perhaps...
  yourcoolsite.com/seo-tool
  With the Predictive 404 module you can enter the matching string distance for potential 404s so that the module can query the closest possible match. Viola! You have given Google and users what they love -- the originally intended URL (yourcoolsite.com/seo-tools) and the most relevant content!
• Add to any Drupal Content Type - Configure the Predictive 404 module to work with any content type -- including blog posts, articles, stories, etc. Note: We are working on support for Drupal taxonomies (category URLs) in the next update.

Updates, Downloading, and Using the Module

• Updates for the Drupal Predictive 404 Module - We have released the first version of the Predictive 404 module. Please check the download link above to grab the latest Drupal version.
• Installation - Grab the Predictive 404 module (.tgz package) and extract to your local hard drive. Via FTP, upload the extracted "predictive_404" folder contents to your Drupal installation at sites/all/modules. Go to the "Modules" admin page and check the module to turn it on. Finally, go to admin/config/search/predictive_404 to set the content types you'd like to use and the module on and set the "Levenshtein Level" to 2, 3, 4, etc. (Note: Most common setting is 3 or 4).

About the Predictive 404 Module

• The concept behind the Predictive 404 module - We would like to thank Russ Jones from Virante.com for the original idea for this module and for contacting us to make the Drupal version!