404 Pages

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404 Pages appear when one of the pages from a search result (or otherwise) no longer exists on your site. The server normally throws a very basic ‘death notice’ at the screen and everything comes to a stop – and that includes the momentum for the search.

To overcome this tragedy you really should make a custom 404 page or have a redirect. 404 Pages are important for two reasons. Spiders hate dead-ends and have to have something to guide them on their merry way, as do the human searchers, the letter being particularly fickle.

 

std 404

If a page is missing, for some reason, it’s tragic just to get a some standard system error and a sure fire way of having people suspend their search. Two ways to overcome this:

Redirect any 404 errors to your home page. That’s a very simple (if a bit rough and ready) solution and can be done through your .htaccess file. But the drawback is that it could confuse the searcher as they are unaware as to why they have landed on this page when they specifically asked for another.

The ‘correct’ way around that is to create a custom 404. It can be based on your page design or it can be completely ‘radical’. The page should inform the searcher that the page they were looking for is missing and, importantly, the 404 page offers them some alternatives.

We use a very simple 404 page on this site but it seems to do the trick as the bounce rate on the 404 page is very low suggesting that stalled searchers do take the opportunity to refine their decision and look for something close to what they were originally looking for if that opportunity presents itself.

I’d also advocate that you make sure your analytics code is in that 404 page.

If you are looking for some creativity pointers for the 404 pages there are plenty about. Try a Smashing Magazine article on 404 pages.