Social Ch@nge

Until now, I hadn’t thought much about the impact your 404 page could have on your visitors. Until I got a hurt email saying that our 404 was, well, a bit snarky.

A 404 page is the error page that shows up when you type in a web address that doesn’t exist, or worse, it’s the page that shows up when your favorite blog has dropped a link. Generally it says something like: “404: File Not Found” and then it lists possible reasons this happened. Turns out our old error page – the default WordPress PressRow Template one – showed this to viewers:

Easy, tiger. This is a 404 page.

You are totally in the wrong place. Do not pass GO; do not collect $200.

Instead, try one of the following:

* Hit the “back” button on your browser.
* Head on over to the front page.
* Try searching using the form in the sidebar.
* Click on a link in the sidebar.
* Use the navigation menu at the top of the page.
* Punt.

Ok, kind of funny, right? Except, not so funny for this reader, and her opinion counts since she’s, well, our mom. She pointed out that the text was really irritating and blamed the user for what she saw as the website’s mistake. And, since the default banner was our Archives banner, she found it hard to know whether she was in website limbo (the technical term for a 404) or on a legitimate  Social Ch@nge blog entry. Mom always told us that it’s important to be helpful, and she’s right – a page that hits the wrong note or blames readers for the error is sure to encourage people to navigate away from your site.

Some basic rules for a 404 page that will help your readers, and keep them on your website:

- Make sure your text is short and sweet. It should acknowledge the problem (or apologize) and offer your readers contacting the web master and/or some help getting back to the main website.

- That said, make sure the tone  of your text matches the tone of your site.  If your website is serious and professional, have a serious and professional (but not boring) message. If your site is more relaxed or personal, you can have a snappier 404, or experiment with all the silly one-liners you like. Be creative – just make sure it sounds like the rest of your content.

- Get visual. Make sure your reader can tell they are in the wrong place by posting a different banner, or using other graphical cues. For a list of really well-designed 404 pages, check this out.

The goal of any 404 is to encourage your reader to stay on your website, so put some thought into your page. Cooincedentally, we’re looking for feedback about Social Change’s kinder, gentler (more medieval) 404 page, which you can find right here.

Techies: If you are interested in some technical background or code for improving your 404 page, check out this helpful article as well as Word Press’ forums for loads of advice from other WP experts.

Original Photo: Flickr user herzogbr, CC License A-NC-SS 2.0

Real Life Example: Flickr user herzogbr made this beautiful 404 page for his library (see above) and he also blogged about it – to hear more about how he did it (and to check out his round up of other library 404 pages) click here.

————————————————-

Reminder: We’re still debating – categories or tags? How do you categorize your website, and which should Social Ch@nge pick to make your search easier. So far we’re hearing comments that tags are “anarchic” – sounds like fightin’ words to us, tag evangelists! Please comment or write us at editor@netfornonprofits.org so that we can get sorted.