404 pages.

The dreaded encounter with this kind of pages are unfortunately sometimes unavoidable. Having 1 or 2 on your site is excusable, having 3 - 6 of them is forgivable, but having any more should be considered a crime.

It's best if the problem is rectified as and the mere use of custom 404 pages are not meant to be viewed as solution as it is more of a remedy.

But sometimes, circumstances eventually lead a visitor to a 404 pages so it's best to come prepared in these kinds of situations.



1) Customer is always right

Remember the age old saying that the customer is always right? Well, this is the one place you should apply it.

It doesn't matter how your visitors reached the page in error, (either his fault or yours) have an apology stated on your custom 404 page.

(As tempting as suggesting that they might have mistyped the URL in the address bar, please refrain from doing so.)


2) IS this right

Whenever I personally reach a 404 page, the first thing I would wonder was if I had mistakenly landed on another website.

So one of the best thing to do on your custom 404 page is to assure your visitors that they are still on the correct domain or website and they had just simply reached a page that is missing or unavailable at that time.



3) A search Box

If they know what they were looking for but they just can't find the exact page or its address the having a search box would be very handy here.

There are plenty of free tools out there that can help you integrate a search function feature into your website. Even Google is offering it which you can get it for free and customize it for your own website.

It's called Google Site Search and it you can get it at http://www.google.com/sitesearch


4) Sitemaps

Or if you have a new visitor to your site and he/she doesn't know what to search for in the first place? Still not a problem, have a link to your sitemap ready and on display included into your custom 404 page.

That way, your visitor can browse through and click on other links of interest. This is the perfect excuse to spruce up your sitemap page to make it more navigation-friendly and easy on the eyes.

Having a page mess-full of jumbled up links is just as bad as having none at all.


5) Back To Square One

The main page or home page is usually one of the most visited page of any website. So have it's best to include a link on your 404 page which can usher them back to the main page as it might be the page they intended to go in the very first place.


6) Slip It In

Since you already have a website visitor landing on your 404 page, why not have a display of your business' main product/service on the page as well? Chances are it is something they were looking for when they paid a visit to your site.


While customizing your 404 pages is great practice when it comes to website design some people make the mistake of going overboard with their 404 pages. They usually include in too many trivial links and information which should not belong on a 404 page. A custom 404 Page is meant to be a means of getting visitors back on track and not to replace the missing or unavailable page.


Cheers,

Allen Kristiyono