Why are 404 pages important and what makes a good one?

It’s the 4th April, which means it is 404 day! We’re here to tell you about the importance of 404 pages on your website and how to make sure you have a good one.

Let’s get started!

Why are 404 pages important?

404 pages are very important as they allow us to tell our users that they have come to a page that either:

Without this 404 page our users would feel confused and frustrated as to why a link didn’t work. This could result in them leaving your website and not coming back. The best way to minimise this from happening is to design a good 404 page for your website.

What makes a good 404 page?

Since users come to a 404 page when they can’t find what they were looking for, it’s important to make sure we help them as much as possible. This can be done in a variety of different ways:

Providing a clear message that explains what has happened

Users landing on these pages typically won’t understand why so it’s important we have a clear message that explains and reassures them. This shouldn’t be anything too long as it’ll cause overwhelm, just something clear, concise and reassuring.

Giving clear call to actions for our users

A 404 can typically be seen as a dead end page for users. However, this should be seen as an opportunity to sign post our users to certain parts of your website.

Making sure your 404 page works on all devices

Our audience could land on this page from any devices, so it’s important to make sure that the page looks good and works as intended on desktop, mobile and tablet. These pages tend to be fairly straight forward in terms of design and layout so this should be easy to achieve.

Conclusion

Now you’ve learned why 404 pages are important and what makes a good one, why not use 404 day as your opportunity to improve your 404 page!