The small things can make a huge difference on a website. Attention to detail is not likely to make or break your business, but it can have a meaningful impact. A page that many publishers often don’t pay enough attention to is the 404 page.
Having a custom 404 page on your website can determine whether a customer stays on a website or goes elsewhere, which is why we have outlined five tips to make sure your 404 page works for your website.
Set up a customised 404 page
Usually, if a customer is taken to a broken page on your website, it will display a default message, or worse, a white screen of death. This is possibly the worst way to let consumers know that they’ve landed on a page that does not exist, and while it is impossible to prevent this these errors, there is a friendlier way to let the customer know.
Always try to avoid an identity crisis
When creating your 404 page, it deserves the same work that has likely been given to all of the other pages on your website. In an ideal world, your 404 will look exactly like the rest of website, but it should at least, make the identity of your company visible (hint – use your logo).
Try not to be too brief or technical
There are a few different ways to say “Page Not Found” to the user, but as a general rule, your 404 page should always highlight the problem, for example; “The page you are looking for was not found on this site.” A 404 should always try to provide a simple explanation also e.g. “It’s possible that you have entered the address incorrectly or you are looking for a page that has moved.”
Do not send the user away
If you can’t deliver what the user is looking for, DO NOT send them awayt. A good 404 should include the navigation elements present on your websites other pages and provide a search form or other functionality that gives the user the chance to find the content originally wanted or something similar.
Keep track of your 404 pages
Things happen, bad links, files accidently deleted etc. This is all the more reason to keep track of the 404 pages that you are serving up. If you keep seeing the same URLs over and over again, you may be able to use a 301 page, which redirects users to a page that has been moved or to a page more relevant to them.
For any more information about a custom 404 page or anything else to do with eCommerce, contact Visualsoft today for a free consultation.
