404s – Page Not Found

404-pages

People land on your 404 page all the time. Don’t beat yourself up about it—it just happens—usually when some unknowing admin deletes pages on your website without setting up 301 redirects.

Users land on this page because they’re looking for something your website offers, but that information just doesn’t happen to be on that particular URL any longer.

Most sites default to display a message that the page no longer exists. This is entirely useless and leaves the visitor at a dead end thinking, “well that didn’t work; guess I’ll try a different site.”

At this point, they exit your website, causing your bounce rate to increase and other critical metrics to decrease, while skewing all your web analytics for the worse.

Instead, 404 pages need to offer options, including helpful resources, an internal search bar, even a sitemap so visitors can quickly find exactly what they are looking for. If nothing else, entertainment — like these top-ranked 404s from presidential candidates.

Different industries and different audiences will dictate what option works best. Below are some examples of 404 pages that are actually useful, or at that very least, entertaining.

Because most audiences have a great deal of crossover when it comes to the content preferences of a 404 page, these examples could work for nearly any industry.