OH MY! 404 Errors

A potential client finds a link to a page on your site, but unfortunately it is old, and the page no longer exists. He opens the link to find the dreaded 404 error (page not found). What now? Does he hit the back button, or do you engage the customer with a custom 404 error page, and put him on the path to website nirvana?

Custom 404 error pages are easy to create, and help make your site user friendly. Here are a few ideas:

• Let the user know why they've landed on the error page:
  
  1. User mistyped url
  2. The page was moved or deleted
  3. The link was broken
• Create useful links to other areas of your site . . . homepage, contact us, etc.
• Have a search box available for users to find other content on your site
• Add a site map
• Make the 404 page look consistent with the rest of the site
• Be creative. Let users know there's a little personality behind your site
• Use your site analytics to track information about 404 hits. We can help redirect bad links to newer content.

Click on some of our 404 pages below:

Coming in the fall of 2011