Creating a good 404 page
Written on February 1st 2008, filed under Usability, How to's with 0 comments.
A 404 error isn’t the end of the world, but on the other hand it’s also not completely irrelevant. A large amount of sites don’t have a backup plan for when something goes wrong, despite the fact that a good 404 page will decrease the chance that a visitor leaves your site when something can’t be found.
Let’s discuss a few tips and tricks that will turn your 404 page from a repelling to something a bit more welcoming.
- Skip the 404 lingo: Let’s be very clear: the vast majority of users simply haven’t got a clue what the number 404 means. Unless you’re writing to a technical audience it’s better not to include it. And even when you are, it might still be better not to include it.
- Explain what happened: Briefly explain that something went wrong, but stress that it isn’t the end of the world. You’ve probably guessed by now that a blinking title in red caps screaming “You’re doomed now” isn’t exactly going to help you.
- Apologise: and lend a helping hand.
- Show alternative content: Why not show the last 5 news items, or the most popular posts?
- Kick-start and search: Offer a link to the homepage of your site and a search box so that it’s possible to easily kick-start the visit by trying to search again
- Get in the know: Send yourself an e-mail when a page isn’t found, or at least keep an eye on the server-logs so you know what the problem is and how to fix it.
Some examples
This article first appeared in Dutch on the Zoekmachine marketing blog.
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