Making a Useful 404 Page To My Site
Published: Updated:
Updates
- I moved this post to the bikeshed section. Also, added some related reading and a TODO to add a 404 page reporter.
One of the first things I’m working on with my site is a better 404 page. While they’re a lot of interesting 404 pages, I’m not very funny so I decided to keep it functional instead. The main idea is to:
- Help users find what they’re looking for.
- Allow me to check what pages resulted in a 404 so I can fix them and,
- Be as small as possible to not waste precious bandwidth.
Many iterations later, I’ve settled on a basic 404 page featuring:
- some simple styling for responsiveness,
- an explanation as to why the page doesn’t exist (it’s likely that I haven’t moved the page in yet),
- links to where I can find the page on a web archive, and
- a
mailtolink to report the 404 page.
It isn’t much but it’s good enough for now. In the future, I hope to link to a search page, report 404 pages automatically (through analytics or something) and add dark mode so that users aren’t blinded if they end up on a 404 page.
Further Reading
- How to make an ineffective 404 page―
A good 404 page understands that a visitor is not expecting to see it. Its appearance is a jarring and unexpected interruption to an expected or anticipated flow.
This post has influenced my expectations for a 404 page though I think you can still incorporate a joke while being functional like the Financial Times did. The 404 talk also serves as a backdrop of the internal politics.
TODO
- Add a 404 page reporter.
- Examine site for dead links.