What Should Be On Your Custom 404 Error Page

Some Usability Considerations

Though you don't really think about them too much, quite a lot of research has been done on what constitutes an effective and helpful error message. Years ago, for example, there was some great work on this subject done by the scientists at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center at IBM.

Because a custom error page is an error page, it's worth considering the basic requirements of a helpful error:

• What's wrong
• Why it's wrong
• How to fix it
• How to get help if that's insufficient

In that vein, we recommend that 404 error pages include:

• Some sort of explanation of what's going on (e.g. "page not found")
• Some navigational elements to allow them to move back into your site
• A search box (if possible: also see how to add a search box to your custom 404 error page for some tips on how to do that easily)
• A way to contact the site owner or webmaster

You might also opt to include an apology as part of your prose, though we don't necessarily do that, nor do most of the big commercial sites we've explored. Some do, though: MSN says "We're sorry, the page you requested could not be found" and Earthlink says "We're Sorry! We can't locate the page you requested."

The key to remember is that people who see your custom 404 error page are going to inevitably be a bit frustrated that they're facing an error, not the content they sought, so you should do your best to make the page as helpful as possible.