\u201cOops. Something went wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
No matter how hard you work to make sure every link on your website goes to a specific web page, there\u2019s always a chance that a link clicked will be unavailable and become the famous 404 Error: Page Not Found page.<\/p>\n
The 404 Not Found page can be one of the most hated screens on the Internet. Visitors type a URL in the address bar or click a link on your website, wait with the hope that they can find what they need on your website. Disappointingly, what appears on the screen says \u201c404 ERROR NOT FOUND\u201d.<\/p>\n
Visitors could not find the information they need, feel disappointed and hover their cursors on the \u201cx\u201d button on the upper right corner of the browser. They are ready to leave your site. If that comes true, you\u2019ll lose them.<\/p>\n
But wait! Why don\u2019t you prevent the visitors\u2019 leave with a message more useful than \u201cNot Found\u201d? Unless you have already written custom error messages, the standard message will be in plain text which leaves visitors feeling a bit lost.<\/p>\n
So as not to lose those visitors, you should at least custom the error message and provide useful information for visitors.<\/p>\n
To custom a friendly 404 Error Page, you should include the following information on your custom 404 Error page:<\/p>\n
1. Error message which is shorter but sweeter.
\nDesign your own error message and make them appear on your 404 page. Words such as \u201cSorry File Not Found\u201d or \u201cYou searched something that doesn\u2019t exist\u201d would be much better than \u201c404 Error Page Not Found\u201d.<\/p>\n
Also tell the visitors that you\u2019ve been notified of the error and it will be rectified shortly.<\/p>\n
2. Links or information that may be helpful for the visitors
\nCreate a link list with some text. List some related articles on your website based on the visitors\u2019 previous browsing. Visitors can click any of the links as\u00a0they wish and reach another web page of your site.<\/p>\n
3. A search box
\nIf you have a site search, add it to your 404 page and let the visitors search what they were looking for.<\/p>\n
4. Your contact information
\nYou can display an email address or a comment form on the error page so that visitors can contact you.<\/p>\n
5. A link to the sitemap (if you have one)<\/p>\n
6. Make your website logo appear on the error page is also a good idea.<\/p>\n
Some open source systems do not offer Error Page customization, which is harmful to search engine optimization. If the content management system you are using provide Error Page customization feature, you can have a try and create a custom error page of your own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cOops. Something went wrong.\u201d No matter how hard you work to make sure every link on your website goes to a specific web page, there\u2019s always a chance that a link clicked will be unavailable and become the famous 404 Error: Page Not Found page. The 404 Not Found page can be one of the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-experience-sharing","tag-error-page"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostease.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostease.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostease.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostease.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostease.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostease.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostease.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostease.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostease.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}