52 Error Pages That Will Make You Happy You 404-d

Say you’re perusing your favorite site.

You’re clicking around and see a headline that looks particularly interesting. You decide, hey, that seems like a good way to spend 5 minutes of my free time, so you click. Then boom, it’s a broken link.

What do you do? (And, no, crying isn’t an option).

If the site has done its job, by now you should be laughing or at the least distracted by some other cool offerings provided for you on its 404 page.

Because when it comes down to it, a good 404 page is possibly as important as having great content. If visitors to your site 404 and aren’t immediately given some reason to stay on your site, they won’t.

A 404 page could do a few things, such as:

Explain the problem
Offer some contact info
Say sorry
Provide other content options
Turn the error into a positive experience

So how do you do it?

Well, some sites have come up with some pretty ingenious 404 pages. They’ve used their 404 page as a second chance to re-engage their visitors.

While landing on a 404 page can be drag, these sites make it a pretty awesome experience.

Check out these 52 error pages that will make you happy you 404-d, and what makes each one successful.

http://www.brickmarketing.com/ Nick Stamoulis

The ones I like the most are the 404 pages that offer a humorous look at the broken link but provide links back to other pages. The worst thing that can happen is someone stumbles upon a 404 page on your site but has no way to get back (outside of clicking the “back” button) and then leave your site completely. Having a link, or multiple links, on the page to direct them to other active pages of the site can help keep you from losing the visitor.
- http://www.mandloys.com/ Mark Gavalda
  
  Nick, I agree it’s the most logical way of presenting a 404 page from a user _and_ an SEO point of view too. Who would’ve thought you’re a search engine optimizer yourself too?