To most people browsing the web, the Error 404 page is an annoyance. To the site owner, it’s a small disaster. The vast majority of encounters with this are terminal – the visitor closes the site and goes on with their day, sometimes carrying confusion or frustration as they go. This is not something that benefits you or them.
What is an Error 404 Page and Why Do They Happen?
An error 404 is a page that sites generate when a link is followed to a place that doesn’t exist. It’s not a critical error, and doesn’t necessarily mean anything is broken. It’s just that there is no content to show the user, so the site generates a 404.
These pages are often not, by default, styled. You’ve probably seen a fair few of them over the years: a blank black or white page with not much more than the error code. Some sites do apply some basic styling to ensure visual consistency (things like the same brand colours and fonts from elsewhere on the site), but even then there are no intelligent features added to make the error 404 page work for you instead of against you.
All sites get 404s – they are unavoidable. Either someone will type in a link that they spell incorrectly, and that will cause one – or there will be a link in one of your posts or pages that wasn’t updated, or perhaps a blog post got deleted that someone bookmarked and redirects weren’t set up for these links.
Why Are Error 404s Bad For Me and My Visitors?
Error 404s are usually a bad thing because there’s nothing to do, and nowhere to go. It is often the abrupt end of a visitor’s time on your site, and one that leaves them confused and sometimes annoyed – particularly if they weren’t able to finish what they wanted to do.
By extension, these negative feelings can extend to your business. It makes your site feel badly designed, or badly maintained – and the more error 404s a customer sees the more this impression sticks. This can cost you in brand perception, trustworthiness, and, ultimately, revenue.
Error 404s are normal and unavoidable parts of internet life, a bit like taking a wrong turn on a road and ending up in a cul-de-sac. But you want to be able to turn around, don’t you?
How You Can Make Error 404s Work For You: Recapture Leads
At the point of an error 404, you’ve almost certainly lost a visitor. But what if you could use it as a recapture strategy?
Error 404 pages can be styled, like all pages on a website. Making it the same colour as your brand helps it feel consistent with your site, but this isn’t enough to get the visitor back.
Error 404s should be given some strategic thought. If you are an e-Commerce site, having a dynamic section of alternative or similar products might be just the ticket to encourage the visitor to keep browsing your shop. Maybe you even issue a popup with a discount to entice them further! At this stage you have nothing to lose: they were going to go anyway, so anything is worth a shot to reclaim the lost revenue.
If you are primarily a blog, perhaps recommend them related posts to dive back into, or offer an option to join your mailing list to hear about new writing of yours. Even if they leave the site right after, you might get them back next time you post something if they get an email to their inbox.
If you wanted to grow your social media presence, you could use it to bring the visitor over there. Sideline the technicality of the error 404 message and phrase the page like “that’s all for now, but we’re always adding new content to our socials – follow us there!”
A Shift in Mentality is Often All It Takes:
The error 404 page is an often un-exploited opportunity, sometimes treated as an afterthought by designers, to turn a small defeat into a meaningful victory for their clients.
All it takes is a shift in mentality from seeing an error as a problem to instead seeing opportunity.
A good website should treat every interaction as part of a client’s journey, all in service of the site’s main goal – whether that be concluding a purchase, or getting a visitor to read something, or join a mailing list, etc.
Taking care over the small things like this is what elevates design. The best design conforms to the gold standard by not being noticed, because by not being noticed it has removed all friction and led the visitor willingly and cleanly on the intended journey.
True North Web Design endeavours to be attentive to the small details like this that make a site feel premium. My bespoke builds, and business templates include branded and styled Error 404 pages for precisely this reason, so your business avoids dissatisfied customers and recaptures lost potential from those who would otherwise leave.