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February 28, 2006
Custom 404 Page?
The other day I decided that getting a 404 page from my domain must be pretty lame, so I set off to make a custom 404 page. I check Google and, of course, there are a million pages telling you how to the same exact thing. In the end, I decided not to make a new page at all. Instead, whenever you look for something that isn't there, you just get sent to the main page. Good idea? I think so, but tell me if you disagree.
Posted by Stacy on February 28, 2006 11:22 AM | Filed In: Blog
Comments
I think the custom 404 page would be a better idea. I had my old [circa 2001] website do a global redirect to the main page when you requested an invalid object, but it got annoying when I accidentally typed the wrong URL.
Have the custom 404 page say something witty like "have your fingers gone retarded?" :)
Posted by Thomas at February 28, 2006 12:07 PM
Make your custom 404s really insulting. Those are the most fun to stumble on when a site isn't there.
And yeah, 404s are better than redirects anyday. lol
Posted by Alan at February 28, 2006 05:27 PM
making 404 errors direct the user back to the main page is actually very misleading, and I think it's a bad idea. What if you've got a broken link on your site? The user clicks on a broken "About Me" link and gets sent back to the main page.
On the other hand, the default 404 error pages are totally un-useful. no information about what to do, or if the broken link is known or anything shows up.
It's better to have a custom 404 page that provides an email link to report the broken link, or makes suggestions about where to go.
Posted by Emily at March 1, 2006 08:07 AM
A decent stats program will keep track of what 404's people are getting on your site. You shouldn't need a email link to report.
I would just put a message on a custom 404 page that said: "Oops, sorry the page cannot be found, why not try a search or start out from the index page?"
and put a index link and search form there.
Posted by kristin at March 2, 2006 09:03 AM
Posted by Elise at March 10, 2006 07:56 AM
