The 404 page is the bane of existence for the web-surfing Internet user. It shows up when someone tries to access a web page that may no longer exist. In some cases, a website designer may have made some changes to the page and in the process changed the URL. This is bad news for the Internet user who follows an older link that has not been updated. Since there is no redirect code associated with these pages, they are quite literally dead ends on the information super highway.
In the past, website designers were content with just letting the 404 page pop up as a notice that content had moved or become unavailable. However, the increased importance of search engine optimization (SEO) has caused many a website designer to think twice about allowing a generic page to pop up. Although skilled web designers work hard at avoiding a change to URLs after they receive back links, even the savviest professionals acknowledge that sometimes the 404 error is unavoidable.
Yet it is possible to turn a negative into a positive with just a bit of imagination, intuition and a good understanding of SEO. Pinterest has a board dedicated to some of the best 404 pages currently operated by a wide variety of businesses. They combine an apology with a sometimes funny or cute graphic. In short, they avoid the generic approach to the 404 error. After all, a consumer is more likely to be in a forgiving frame of mind after reading a “sorry” message and looking at a small puppy rather than getting a canned message.
The truly wise website designers have taken the bull by the horns and turned their 404 pages into active marketing tools that offer the consumer a menu of choices to find something else on the website that might be of interest. It is only a small step from the uploading of a puppy graphic to also adding a widget that automatically displays links to the site’s five most popular blog posts, products, product reviews or service requests.
Some web designers have chosen to use the 404 page as a springboard that leads the consumer to the latest information offered by the website. After all, the Internet user got to the page because of an outdated link. What better way to remedy the situation than to use the error page as a way to get the user to the latest news and information that is currently available?
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