What Is a 404 Page? Here's Why You Need One

What Is a 404 Page?? In short, it’s an error page. If you use the internet, you’ve probably come across one of these before. The page that once existed at that specific URL no longer exists. Either the website deleted the page or the URL changed and it now lives elsewhere.

404 errors are nearly unavoidable. Among SEO experts, there’s a lot of discussion surrounding how you should handle 404 errors and their impact on SEO. While it’s tempting to simply redirect all 404 errors to the homepage, that’s actually the opposite of what you should be doing.

Why? Well, redirecting to the homepage results in a bad user experience for a couple of reasons:

Visitors are suddenly on your homepage when that’s not the link they clicked and that wasn’t the information they were seeking—this will cause confusion.
Visitors won’t have access to the information they were promised and won’t know why—this will cause frustration.

Creating a 404 Page is an attempt to reduce the frustration of your website visitors. Ideally, you turn a the potential negative user experience of encountering an error into a positive one. There are two things you can do: incorporate helpful links (home page, some of your most popular blog posts, most popular product or category pages, contact page, etc) and include humor.

Mistakes happen! 404 Pages can be a great way to get your website visitors to laugh and infuse some of your brand’s personality. Want to find the best 404 page EVER for inspiration? Here are some great examples:

DoorDash

The on-demand prepared food delivery service’s 404 Page shows an astronaut lost in space (and eating some ramen). This cute page let’s you know that you followed a bad link, but also ties back to the brand with the food imagery.

Dribble

This website is self-promotion and social networking platform for digital designers and creatives. If you arrive at their 404 Page, there is an option to search for a design or designer and also a fun tool that let’s you search by color. It make so much sense for their brand and encourages visitors to stay on the site.

Kings Dominion

The amusement park in Virginia kept their 404 Page simple and proves that you don’t need much! They made a joke about wandering off park grounds. Although, this design could be much more clear for website users that may not understand 404 Pages.

AirBnB

The online marketplace for lodging and tourism experiences keeps it simple and clear. They have a cute animation of a girl dropping her ice-cream and then provides helpful links to help you find what you’re looking for.