Ideal 404 error page, or how to keep the user on the site?

Most users, having stumbled upon the 404 error page, will try to close and forget it as soon as possible. In order not to lose your visitors in this way, it is worth creating an unusual design for this error. Let us consider in more detail what tasks are facing page 404 and how to implement them.



As an introduction, we note that the “Not Found” page 404 (404 Page Not Found) is one of the HTTP status codes adopted by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 1992. For those who are interested in the value of the figures 404, briefly tell.

1. The first "4" means that an error has occurred on the client side. Such a mistake could be an incorrectly written URL or a request for a nonexistent page. In turn, the first "5" would mean an error from the server.
2. Figures "04" - determine the specific error Not Found from the 4xx group. Other errors in this group include 400 Bad Request, 401 Unauthorized, 402 Payment Required, 403 Forbidden, and so on.

If small sites can monitor the correctness of their links, then on larger sites, tracking broken links leading to deleted or moved files or pages becomes more difficult. External links are becoming a bigger problem. Being the most common mistake that an Internet user may encounter, the page may not be found for several reasons :

• URL has been changed;
• page has been deleted;
• error in writing the link;
• the site is currently offline;
• the site no longer exists, and so on.

Let's try to look at the problem from the user's point of view. When users encounter a 404 error, the first question that comes to their mind is: what should I do next? After that, they are likely to leave the site, unless you find a way to keep them. Obviously, it makes sense to modify the standard 404 page.

In general, the custom error page 404 should cope with such tasks :

• user-friendly design, so as not to scare him and keep on the site;
• useful content that would provide the user with an answer to the question “what should I do now?” and give simple and clear instructions;
• taking into account SEO issues.

Taking this into account, we give a list of recommendations for creating a custom 404th page.

1. Be kind to your visitors. They got to this page through no fault of their own. Try to express your regret and willingness to help.
2. Do not go into technical details. The term “404 error” in itself is already sufficiently technical and at the same time understandable to most users. There is no need to scare off visitors with any other specific information about the causes of this error. In fact, it is not even necessary to use the figures “404”; it’s enough just to explain the essence of the problem.
3. Ask users to check the spelling of the link. If they entered the address of the link on their own, then they could probably make a mistake.
4. Stick to the uniform style of the site. The design of the page 404 for the design and feel should be designed in the style of your brand, so that users do not have the misconception that they have come to some other site.
5. Error page 404 should not look like a regular page. Your visitors should clearly see that the page was not found and does not contain any content. Therefore you should not fill it with too much text and links.
6. A small portion of humor never hurts. Quite often, the 404 page becomes for designers and developers a platform for expressing their creative and humorous ideas. Instead of users quickly closing an unlisted page, it’s better to keep them from closing the site, making it interesting for a fun and ingeniously executed page.
7. Be helpful and provide links to possible matches. If users ended up on an unlisted page, they were probably looking for something. So help them find it. Place on the page a menu or links to recently moved pages. Or why not give links to the most popular pages on your site? Or on the newest and most current content. One way or another, users should be no more than one click away from switching to any other page of the site. And, of course, always give a link to the main page.
8. Add a search string. In order not to lose your visitors, let them find what they were looking for, appearing on the error page.
9. Provide a way to submit an error report. The user should always be able to send you an error message if he wishes. This will help you learn about any internal shortcomings of the site. An even better solution for tracking problems on the site will be automatic notification. And if a sudden surge of 404 errors occurs, instant notification will be helpful. This will fix the problem in real time while it is still relevant.
10. Take care of SEO issues. To optimize the site, it is important to minimize the number of internal links to 404 pages, or even better, eliminate the possibility of generating incorrect URLs leading to 404 pages. Tools for webmasters will help you to track errors on the site, including errors with code 404 Not found. Moreover, these tools will help you to understand where errors come from and how they are formed - an error in the URL link on the site, or it is an attack from competitors.
    
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    Slightly deviating from the original article, I will add links and screenshots of the tools referred to in this paragraph.
    
    Google:
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Yandex:
    
    
    
    
    
    I also recommend that you read the official information about pages 404 from search engines: Google is here and Yandex is here .
    
    

Finally, we selected some of the most fun, inventive 404 error pages from various sites on the Internet and offer to take a look at them.