As a website visitor, there’s almost nothing more frustrating than seeing ‘Error 404 page Not Found’ on your screen, and for whatever the reason for its appearance, and for most visitors, what usually follows is a swear word or two and a quick exit from the error page in search of an alternative website.
Unless the reason for an Error 404 page is a mistyped URL, there’s not a lot you can do about it as further information on these pages is often sketchy or non-existent: it’s a real pain but just one of those things.
Customise
However, as a business it might be worth asking your web designer to customise your error page to make it less anger-inducing and more attractive and useful to visitors.
The addition of colour and graphics would go a long way in keeping visitors reading the page because unlike the plain standard ones currently in use, it wouldn’t be instantly recognised as an error page and so visitors are likely to stay on it for a few more vital seconds which should hopefully give the page time to do its job.
Engage
Offering alternative links to the page visitors were initially looking for or helpful information may persuade them to carry on until they get to the page they want. Even a little injection of humour into the copy could dispel their initial frustration and keep them interested enough to continue.
Friendly
I think this particular example from Arco Media just about sums up what a friendly Error 404 page is all about, and it seems to me that making the effort to create something that doesn’t immediately alienate visitors and manages to keep them reading can only be a good thing.
Until next time.
