Running a successful website and maximizing ROI not only requires doing the big things right, but also doing the little things right. Even when attention to detail won't make or break your business, it can have a meaningful impact.
One page that publishers often don't pay enough attention to is an important one: the 404 page. While you would hope that every visitor to your website will land on the page he or she intended to land on, that's often not the case. And the page he or she is greeted with, the 404, can determine whether you lose a visitor (sometimes for life) or make lemonade out of lemons.
Here are five tips for making sure your 404s are working for you, not against you.
Set up your 404
The worst way to let your users know that they've landed on a page that doesn't exist is usually to display the default message your web server will spit out if you haven't set up your own 404, or to show them a white screen of death.
Avoid an identity crisis
A 404 deserves the same papering you've probably given to all of the other pages on your website. Ideally, your 404 will look like the rest of your site, but at the very least, it should make visible the identity of the website (use your logo).
Don't be too terse, or technical
There are a lot of ways to say "Page Not Found" but as a general rule of thumb, your 404 should highlight the problem ("The page you're looking for was not found on thissite.com") and provide a simple explanation ("It's possible you entered the address incorrectly or are looking for a page that has moved").
Don't send the user away
Just because you can't deliver what a user is looking for doesn't mean that you don't have what he or she wants. Your 404 should contain the navigation elements present on your other pages, and if possible, should provide a search form or other functionality that gives the user the opportunity to find the content originally sought or otherwise relevant content.
Track your 404s
Bad links happen, files get accidentally deleted, etc. That's why it's a good idea to keep track of the 404s you're serving up. If you see the same URLs over and over again, you may be able to 301 users to a page that has been moved, or direct them to a more relevant page.
Patricio Robles is a tech reporter at Econsultancy. Follow him on Twitter.
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10:10AM on 6th August 2010
Patricio this is an excellent, and often overlooked point (I'm going off now to review my 404 pages - so thanks for that!). I especially like the idea of having a page that reflects the style of the rest of your site, and many content management systems allow you to set this up easily.
Head of Conversion & Product at Ticket.com
10:29AM on 6th August 2010
Here's a tip for affiliate marketers that don't have decent 404 pages (I've seen many, you can't hide from it!): add a title about "Sorry XXX page not found" and below it a line that the page may no longer exist or the user may have mistyped with a few relevant 'keywords' about your site. Then drop some adsense. The worst thing for an affiliate marketer is to lose traffic so if you're going to lose it on a 404 (and frankly 404s do happen for many reasons) then monetise it as a last resort (it also improves the customer experience by providing them with a useful resource)
1:59PM on 6th August 2010
> are looking for a page that has moved This is bad ;) If the page has been moved. HTTP is here for handling redirection. It would mean that the people haven't used the proper redirection mechanism. Suggestion for the message: "You might have followed a bad link or entered the wrong address. Search what you are looking [/searchform box/] or visit the home page of our Web site."
4:28PM on 6th August 2010
Adding a search box/feature on a 404 can help with stickability depending on your line of business
7:22PM on 6th August 2010
Although it's a couple of years old now, the discussion comments for a blog post on A List Apart might be useful follow-up reading for those interested in this topic:
http://www.alistapart.com/comments/amoreuseful404/P0/
Head of Production at WebCastle Media Pvt LTD
7:02AM on 9th August 2010
After having a server crash for my personal blog, I lost all images used on and had only db backup. So I wrote a WordPress plugin to show a default image for missing images on blog.
I would like to share it with you guys if it would help to let your users know there was an image which is now missing
http://www.htmlremix.com/projects/wordpress-broken-image-fix
Thanks
1:51PM on 9th August 2010
My 404 page text says "Page Not Found Sorry, the page you were looking for, "/test", could not be found, and we weren't sure what you were trying to find. Please try our menu, our sitemap, or search.", with links to the sitemap and the search feature (on my list is to make it actually a searchbox). I also have the page email me every time there is an invalid link, and I add php redirects to appropriate locations for each missing page.
MD & Founder at altex marketing oü
2:08PM on 9th August 2010
Not sure why my comment did not show up but anyway i recommended Plink Labs Area 404 (exmaple and advice about 404) http://www.plinko.net/404/area404.asp and also welcomed anyone to our fun page www.altex.ee/bvjh
5:22AM on 10th August 2010
A really interesting article Patricio, thank you. I think the 404 is something which is hugely overlooked, yet is often encountered - which makes it effectively another element of your communication, user's experience and therefore, brand.
I'd like to share a great example that I'd found - TPP Internet's 404 page - which continues the personality of their brand: http://www.tppinternet.com.au/dash
Thanks for raising an important, but often overlooked, site experience.