A 404 page is that useless page that turns up when you..

• click on a page link that has been moved
• click on a link in an old email where the page is no longer there
• or any other number of possible reasons!

Most of the default 404 pages are unintelligible for the non-geek. First of all, the page has the word “Error” preceded by a meaningless number. For most people over the age of 40 this, immediately gets them a little nervous, reminding them of blue screens of death and DOS commands gone wrong..

Aside from the internet explorer / IIS error, you will likely see this generated by default from an Apache web server:

When non-sophisticated browsers hit it, they often report thinking:

• this site is broken completely
• my computer is no longer connected to the net
• this site might be a bad site, might give me a virus
• it must be an old site
• etc.. etc..

Even sophisticated browsers will tell you they do not bother hitting the back button and re-starting their search:

• these guys don’t know how to maintain a site
• obviously they don’t have what I want
• I’ll just go to Google and start my search over

5 Things Your Custom 404 Page Should Have:

1. A clear, friendly un-alarming description

“Sorry, the page your looking for was moved.”

Also, because a 404 error can harm your brand, you may want to inject some creativity into it. Some fun & creative examples can be found at smashmagazine.com’s 404 revisited article.

2. A Clear Call to Action

“Please search here or use the sitemap to find what you’re looking for”

3. A Prominent Search Bar with a clear purpose:

4. Prominent Sitemap

Zappos.com is the world’s largest online retailer of shoes. When someone hits their 404 page, the first call to action is a summarized product catagory list that gets the buyer right back into searching products:

* What we can learn from Zappos is that displaying your entire sitemap probably isnt as effective as displaying the top  3-5 places that people go on your site / or the top 3-5 places you want them to go!

5. Prominent Homepage Link

The word “HOME PAGE” will suffice

2 Things to Drop: the words “404″ and “Error” both are fairly irrelevant to your average visitor.

My Top 5 404 Pages:

Additional 404 Resources:

Some Creative 404 Pages