Good soul, dry your eyes.
Every once in a while… it happens. Someone on your site ends up on your 404 page. Perhaps they mistyped a URL they swore they “knew” – or maybe you have done some site reorganization and broke some links, or Google has some no longer existing pages still showing up in their search results.
Regardless of how they got there, and at whom the finger of blame should be pointed… the site visitor is there. Yup, they are staring at your 404 page.
Now, what does it say? Does it sound like an indifferently impersonal robot and read:
I sure hope not.
Because if it does, you are missing an opportunity to connect with, amuse or at least help your visitor who happened upon this page – potentially because you put them there.
For example, use the 404 opportunity to tell the visitor:
- a ninja took that page,
- or that they must have dreamed up the page like a fairy tale as they slept
- or that the little bird that told them about that page was a liar.
Just tell them SOMETHING in real people language, and maybe, if you feel like it, make them laugh. You can blame it on yourself, blame it on them, blame it on a vortex or even daylight savings. The possibilities are endless. But, you must be sure to direct them back to somewhere on your site to help them retrieve their bearings. You can also be a hero by giving them a search box, so they can retry to find what they were initially looking for.
The design of custom 404 error pages is often overlooked and underestimated. Don’t let your error page say “I have my robot tail between my robot legs.” Have it instead say “Oops! Not sure how you g0t here, but let’s have a good time and share a moment, then I will help you find your way.”
At Terrakon, we practice what we preach: http://www.terrakon.com/our-custom-404-rocks-it-gosh-darn-diggity
Love the post Lauren — our 404 certainly isn’t lame — check it out y’all —
http://www.terrakon.com/our404rules