What’s up with all the dumb 404 pages?

Simplebits is on a 404 hunt. Others have already done some searching. But what have they come up with? Lots of “cool” examples of clever but completely useless things to do with 404 pages.

I really don’t get why it’s considered to be a good idea to do something silly/”cool” with a 404 page. At this point the user has encountered an error, and you’re not going to tell them what to do about it? This example (and others) actually tell the user to turn around and leave. Is that really what you want? They’re trying to find something on your site and you tell them to go away?

Or how about the ones that present you with confusing expressions and lame attempts at “personality”? Or strange photos of sea creatures. Just how is that helpful?? You might as well click the back button for me.

And it gets worse. Some even think that this is an appropriate place to call people names.

There are some that actually make attempts to be helpful, but ruin it with clever writing. I’m sorry, but pages don’t just disappear like magic. There’s also the option of really tiny text in a small box that asks me to hack the URL.

When a user encounters a 404 page it means that something went wrong. That should be obvious, right. So what should we do we do when something goes wrong? Do we make a silly joke and leave the user to find their own way? Of course not — we should try to help them.

What a 404 page should do

A useful 404 page should help the user find what they are looking for. At least give them some navigation and a search box so they can look around your site to see if the article still exists. You may also try to salvage the situation by pointing the user to interesting or commonly viewed pages on your site.

Recommendations for 404 pages

• Include the regular site navigation if possible, so people can at least get to the site and aren’t left with nowhere to go.
• Explain what went wrong without being too clever and confusing. This isn’t the time to show off your personality — be clear about what may have happened.
• Keep a search box handy. There’s a good chance the user may want to search for something, so don’t make them go looking for your search box. Keep it right there in the centre of the screen. Some recommend trying to automatically do a search based on the incoming URl but that doesn’t always work.
• Provide some links to your best content and/or most popular pages. If they can’t find what they’re looking for they may be interested in other parts of your site.
• Using the 404 number is optional. I think this one depends on your audience — most won’t know what 404 (or 403, or 401) means so it might just be confusing to include it. On the other hand, more technical audiences may be more confused if it’s not there.
• Keep in mind that the visitor may not have seen your site before, and therefore may not be familiar with your sense of humor. Save your cleverness for more appropriate circumstances
• Remember that the user is heading for the back button. They’re going to click it! Any time now! You’ve only got a few seconds to convince them that your site is useful to them. Being clever isn’t going to make you look more useful (only more confusing). Back!

For more advice on 404 pages visit:

• Coding Horror or
• A List Apart

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