Why You Should Pay Attention to Your 404 Page
Lest I make any assumptions, I realize that there is a strong possibility you don’t even know what a 404 page is - let alone why you should pay attention to it! Every website has a 404 page. It’s the landing page for any broken links or misspellings in the URL. For instance, if you visit www.nike.com/1234, the page doesn’t actually exists…and you are quickly redirected to this page instead.
You’ve definitely seen a similar page before on multiple websites, letting you know that you’ve gone somewhere that doesn’t really exist. For most people, this is a standard page that says something like ‘Page not found.’ But what if you could actually use this page to market and brand your business? I’m here to argue that no web page should go to waste - even one that doesn’t technically exist!
In this day and age, content has become king, and I am one of countless business owners who regularly shares new content on at least a weekly basis, if not much more than that. Because of this, there are bound to be links to content that have disappeared or were archived a long time ago, since many of the blogs I write are intended to be evergreen.
Rather than redirect users to a standard 404 page that simply says something like ‘oops…sorry!’ and likely causes them to leave my site, I want to keep them just a little bit longer. While it’s impossible to predict every broken link you have, what you can do instead is gather some of your best content and link it on your 404 page so that every visitor has a reason to stay. In fact, they might surf a little longer as they get trapped in the rabbit hole of reading more and more of what you have to offer!
In addition, this page can be an easy way to reinforce your brand voice. I built a custom 404 page for one of my clients, Easton Outdoors, and when I was working on it I knew that it couldn’t be boring, because that’s not at all in line with their brand! So, instead, I created this:
It has all the elements needed to keep a potential client on the site (links to more articles, a way to contact the owner, and even a video of 2019 job highlights) as well as a memorable element to garner a laugh and humanize the brand just a little bit more.
Building a custom 404 page might not be your top priority - let’s be honest, there are a lot of things demanding your attention! - but it’s a small piece of marketing that shouldn’t be forgotten, and an area most of your competition is overlooking. So go on, get ahead of the game, and make your page look and sound just like you!
