Optimize your 404 Error page, retain those visitors

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Posted in » Blogging Tips, Usability - by Ades on March 6th, 2008

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Have you optimized your blog’s 404 Error page? Some of you may ask what is that? It’s a page that is not accessible at the time of the browsing. Reasons for the inaccessibility may vary, it can be temporary or permanent.

For example, if you delete a post, then its address becomes permanently inaccessible. When you are doing some changes to your blog, some of your posts might be temporarily inaccessible. In both cases, users who wanted to view those particular pages, would be displayed 404 Error page instead.

Optimizing your blog’s 404 page

Error Pages on most sites are usually very dull and geeky. They are not so user-friendly to non-IT users. Actually, users do not need to know what error number it is when the document cannot be found on the server. They just need to be informed in a simple human language, e.g “page not found” or “file not found” etc. They couldn’t care less if it was a 1001 error page!

Recently, some websites started to come up with creative and interesting 404 pages, particularly Twitter and Technnorati.optimize_404.png

But there is a better way of optimizing 404 pages for blogs, instead of just having a “cute” picture of porcupine fixing your blog, instead integrate some of your interesting posts below the 404 error. At least that way, you have a better chance of retaining that (lost) visitor.

Because if he came looking for something in your blog, probably he will find your other articles interesting too!!

Where is my 404 page?

Depending on what theme you are using (default or custom), you might and might not have 404 page in your blog. However, by default WordPress’ 404 page is located inside your theme files (see below).

404_theme.png

So, just open it and edit it in your theme editor. You can manually integrate links to some of your popular articles or you can use plugin to call your popular posts in 404 pages.

WP Plugin: 404 Notifier

Want to track how many 404 hits your blog receives every day? Sure, there is an excellent WP-Plugin called 404 Notifier by404notifier.png AlexKing. This plugin tracks 404 hits; where the user came from (referral url) and what page it tried to access but failed.

It can send the stats to your email or you can access the RSS feed that is generated by the plugin. Choosing RSS feed is a wise option, because email option keeps sending you notifications every time there is a 404 hit.

My blog gets about 70 hits, so guess what I found in my inbox the next day after I installed this plugin?

I wish Alex could introduce a new option; daily digest. That would be great.

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20 Responses to “Optimize your 404 Error page, retain those visitors”

  1. By Robert Irizarry on Mar 6, 2008

    404 page strategies vary of course but I agree that simply leaving telling a potential reader that something simply can’t be found isn’t particular useful.

    In my case, I give some tips to finding content on the site pointing out things like category listings and the search function for example.

  2. By Dining Tables on Mar 7, 2008

    Thank you. I did not even know that this can be done!

    As a reader of blogs I have often come across error 404 messages and they have always been annoying. What you say here perhaps should reach a wider audience of bloggers so that it can be made into not such an annoying experience for visitors.

  3. By Yeast Infection on Mar 7, 2008

    I didnt know about this either. Thank you for the post.

  4. By Nicole Price on Mar 7, 2008

    Great idea! But how exactly do you go about doing it? Is there a ready plugin that will display your most popular pages on the 404 error page?

  5. By David Bradley on Mar 7, 2008

    While you’re at it, you should do the same for your wp-db.php file, which shows up when your MySQL database fails. I wrote a brief explanation of this custom error message here.

    db

  6. By Ades on Mar 7, 2008

    Nicole, depending on what theme you are using, there should be a 404 page inside your theme files. You can edit them manually through presentation > edit theme.

    You could insert a code of your most popular plugin in this (404) page. Or you could list some of your posts manually.

  7. By Ades on Mar 7, 2008

    Thanks David, that’s a useful info.

  8. By Tom Beaton on Mar 7, 2008

    Ive tried using a 301 redirect on my 404 pages but google didn’t liked it.. My results in the SERPS dropped really fast :-(

  9. By Sergio on Mar 7, 2008

    this plugin is amazing! great find Ades and great article too, cheers!!!

  10. By eMarketing Chat on Mar 7, 2008

    Optimizing our 404 pages is a great way to stand out from the crowd at the moment!

    Most websites not doing something with it or are unfamiliar with the 404 concept. I predict that will change soon when people find out more about it!

  11. By Robert Irizarry on Mar 7, 2008

    @David - Great tip and one I’ll implement this weekend after seeing a very quick glitch with my site’s database last night.

  12. By David Bradley on Mar 7, 2008

    @Robert It was relatively easy to do on pre-2.3 installations, but I’m just looking at my own wp-db.php file now and not 100% sure where the bits I discussed need to go, it doesn’t have the wordpress png file hardcoded it seems…unless…I’m looking at the wrong file, will have to double check

    db

  13. By Jayson on Mar 7, 2008

    good point about the visitor not caring what error it is. The pages from Technorati and Twitter were pretty clever. Thanks for the post - we’ll be updating or page shortly.

  14. By Ades on Mar 7, 2008

    Mhhmm, so Google doesn’t like redirection on 404 pages huh? interesting. something to note for future.

  15. By webomatik on Mar 8, 2008

    Excellent plugin; It’s always good idea to take advantage of 404 page and show some creativity.

    Here is the best 404 page ever
    http://www.bluedaniel.com/404.shtml

  16. By Webmaster on Mar 8, 2008

    Great plugin. Just downloaded & installed this plugin.

  17. By seo on Mar 9, 2008

    I must say i never really bothered much about 404 pages. Might follow your advise and sort something out.

  18. By Vicky on Mar 17, 2008

    If I can figure out how I will do something about mine. Thanks for the explanation.

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