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Oct 4, 2010
Todd Zeigler
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Getting More Out of Your 404 Error Page

When redesigning a site and moving to a new Content Management System, we try our best to preserve the old sites URL structure so that search engine and link traffic is preserved.  If that isn’t possible, we set up what are called 301 redirects, which basically tell search engines that a page has moved permanently to a new location.  But no matter what you do, sometimes users are going to come across bad links and see your sites 404 error page, which tells visitors and search engines that the page they are looking for can’t be found.

Most sites do very little with their 404 error pages, simply telling users the page can’t be found and that’s it.  These 404 pages for Organizing from America and the New York Times are pretty good examples of the kind of thing you usually see.  In my opinion, this strictly technical approach misses an opportunity for you to communicate with your site visitors.

We recently launched a website for Panthera, a non-profit working to save the worlds wild cats.  We transitioned the site from straight HTML to the Content Management System Drupal.  This is a pretty dramatic change in terms of URL structure, so we knew during the first few weeks the new site was live the 404 error page would be seen fairly frequently.  Instead of simply creating a “Page Not Found” version of the 404 page, we wanted to take the opportunity to communicate Panthera’s overall mission and ask visitors to join with us.  Below is what we came up with.

404

Great websites use every opportunity that is presented to create a compelling experience for their visitors.  Designing a custom 404 page is a great example of a small detail that can have a big impact on the user experience.

Update: We drafted another post with additional examples.

  • http://twitter.com/jrick Jonathan Rick

    Todd -

    I love the idea – and hope it becomes ubiquitous – but I wonder if you can improve upon the particular links you use for Panthera.

    Most users will interpret the message, “The page you are looking for has vanished,” as a sign that the given Web site is flawed. But, in fact, as you point out in your first paragraph, a 404 error doesn’t necessarily indicate a screw-up. Why not include an empathetic sentence or two explaining this?

    Similarly, instead of treating the 404 error as a splash page, why not use the old URL to guess where the user intended to go, and provide a list of likely links?

  • http://magazinesonline.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/dont-miss-these-opportunities/ Don’t miss these opportunities « Magazines Online

    [...] miss these opportunities October 5, 2010 The Bivings Report just blogged the 404 page they designed for non-profit Panthera (make sure to click through to check out the visual). The point? Even on a well-designed, [...]

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Todd-Zeigler/33902797 Todd Zeigler

    Hi Jonathan,

    Before launching the new site, we set up a series of 301 redirects for the majority of URLs on the old site that were getting traffic. So for most of our old URLs, people will automatically see a relevant page on the new site instead of getting sent to the 404 page. So we have already tried to send users to a relevant page on the new site if we have one.

    As for your point about improving the messaging, good point. We’ll kick it around changing it.

    Thanks.

    Todd

  • http://www.wcwalsh.com Connor Walsh

    Todd–

    Just curious. What kind of conversions, if any, are you receiving off of the 404 page?

    Thanks,
    Connor

  • http://twitter.com/debaser Todd Zeigler

    Connor – we’re getting conversion rates of around 25% of what we see on splash pages. So not terrific but not zero either. I’ll probably tweak at some point to use it more as introduction to Panthera and less as an overt ask and see how that does in comparison.

    Cheers.
    TZ

  • http://www.bivingsreport.com/2011/another-awesome-404-error-page/ Another Awesome 404 Error Page | The Bivings Report

    [...] try to access a web page that has moved or been deleted.  A couple of months back I wrote a dorky blog post about how web developers should use  404 pages at as branding opportunity, instead of just [...]

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