Why you need a custom 404 page
Have you ever visited a page of a website that has been moved, deleted or renamed? If so you will have seen an unfriendly error message telling you that there is no page at that address.
This page is called a 404 error and in most cases doesn’t deliver a user experience that any brand would be happy with – it just looks ugly and can potentially drive customers away. Most websites do not have a custom 404 page and normally the standard 404 page comes up.
Why is the default 404 page bad?
Too much technical jargon – It does not really mean anything to the average internet user.
It is not branded – your site users are familiar with the colours and design of the site they’re viewing, and then if suddenly they’re faced with a plain white page with black text, they may think that they have gone to another site.
There is nowhere else to go – After a visitor clicks the link that takes them to this 404 page, there are no links for them to follow other than click “back” in their browser, which is not a good customer experience.
This is the first page they see of your site and it is an error page they might assume the entire site is down, when actually the only problem is that a page has been renamed.
Why you need a customised 404 error page?
Jellyfish Livewire’s custom 404 page is the same theme as the brand and it encourages users to browse the site and injects a little humour at the same time.
It is a good idea to customise your 404 error page on your website. This allows you to make the page look like it is part of your site as it maintains continuity for the user, but display a clear message to your visitors telling them that the page they were looking for has not been found but be sure to offer them something more than simply ’go back’.
A custom 404 page is a tailored version of a 404 page that can be designed to engage users and encourage them to continue to browse other areas of the site instead of leaving which is a common issue.
Get in touch with us today if you would like help creating a customised 404 page or if you want to find out how to make your digital channels work harder for you.
