404 error – a selection of beautiful pages, tips for improvement
“Error 404 or Not Found (not found) —the standard HTTP response code indicating that the client was able to communicate with the server, but the server cannot find data as requested” —the definition from Wikipedia.
404 error – the most common on the Internet. And what do these painfully familiar numbers mean to everyone? The first number 4 indicates an error from the client, for example, a bad connection or an incorrectly entered address in the search bar. The other two numbers denote a specific category of errors, which includes statuses such as Conflict, Precondition Failed, Bad Request, and other fourth-class statuses. The occurrence of this error has several reasons:
bad connection;
the link leading to the address is outdated or has been deleted;
page moved to a new address;
typo when entering the site address.
Even if the site is small and all the “broken” links are carefully monitored, no one is immune from the human factor, the incorrectly entered address, or the outdated and irrelevant link. On large sites with a large number of pages it is harder to keep track of outdated links, and there is a need for your 404 error page.
The standard page with this error is known to everyone; it looks quite scary:
Unfortunately, not all visitors know what caused this error and the first thought when this window appears is: what should I do next? I broke everything? I’ll go away from here and pick up a good day. Even an experienced user can confuse or frighten off this window.
How to keep a visitor?
So that the error does not frighten the visitor, explain to him that nothing terrible happened and you just need to go to another section of the site. Tactfully direct the user to the exit from this ill-fated “deadlock”.
There are several ways to regain trust:
Add links to existing sections of the site. Do not force him to write manually the address of the site, update the page, look for typos. Even one button “Back to home” is enough. Duplicate popular links sections of your site would be generally wonderful.
Explain what happened. It is not necessary to describe in detail about the origin of the error, to make long instructions. It is enough to do with one or several phrases. The word “ERROR” is completely optional, often only drives more into a stupor. If the site is entertaining, you can humor and create. Make the guest smile, then he will be more willing to return to the main page. But do without the humor below the belt and offensive jokes, let’s respect our users.
It will not be superfluous to add a search string to the site, this will further simplify the visitor’s actions. Having entered the desired request in the line, he quickly finds himself in that section of the site, which he should have been in before the appearance of the error.
Be sure to add corporate identity or common elements of the external appearance of the site. Too much difference between design errors and the site as a whole is alarming. This leads the user to the idea: have I gone over some bad link? And if I left the desired site. The presence of a logo or company name is required.
You can add creativity to the page with interesting thematic animation, dynamic illustrations always attract attention. And the error 404 should cause interest and desire to stay on the site with a question, what else is interesting on this site?
If you recently transferred or deleted a sufficiently large number of pages and are sure that many visitors, going to your website, will not find the necessary information, you can insert the Google search box, Yandex. Users will thank you for saving their time, and this is a plus in karma. 😉
Completely the whole look was left in the same style as the site itself. Do not touch the top menu and basement, so as not to shock anyone abrupt transitions. For convenience, we have inserted links to the most popular services (for clients) and main sections of the blog (for those who are simply interested). Be sure to add a link to the 1PS homepage and a call to action “Write to us”, so that no one is lost. But! Taking into account all the technical issues, we forgot about the creative. Already working on this. In the near future we will get an attractive and fun page.
