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: Tony Schiffbauer is the President and CEO of TonyRocks.com, a full-service design and technology provider specializing in niche marketing and advertising, training, purchasing solutions, e-commerce, and enterprise-level application development.

404 Pages: How a Wrong Turn Can Be a Branding Opportunity

Written on: Feb 6, 2006
Author: Tony Schiffbauer |
: Share; 404 Pages: How a Wrong Turn Can Be a Branding Opportunity

404 pages…yeah, you’ve seen them every once and awhile when surfing around the net. You’ve probably seen one when visiting a web page that really didn’t exist. Heck, I’m willing to bet my life savings that even your website has a 404 error page. If you don’t know about the 404 then chances are you still have one of the ugly, un-customized error pages. I equate coming across a non-customized 404 error page to walking into the “maintenance entrance” of a beautiful shopping mall: A bit dirty, smelly, cigarette butts scattered on the ground. Maybe even old paint cans or signs of business that are no longer there. This can tarnish the image of even the fanciest shopping mall. Is this what you really want? I didn’t think so.

If at one time you had a page on your site and then deleted it, chances are it is still indexed with a search engine. If a person clicks on that link from the search engine they will be plopped to a worthless and ugly 404 error page. Worthless until you send it to an extreme (or not so) makeover. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain is the desired effect.

Wouldn’t it be nice if that maintenance entrance or page that does not exist could be a direct portal to an informational directory pointing to the correct place?

What to do? Chances are you can customize your 404 error pages. Check with your web host for this ability. Being that custom error pages actually point to a webpage, it is possible that you can do some pretty dynamic stuff. You are probably asking yourself, why do I even care? What do I care if they get to a “Page Not Found” error page? Consider the missed opportunities! A user may get fed up with trying to type in the correct URL located at your website and eventually leave. That person could have been one interesting in spending lots of cash. But what do YOU care if they get a page not found error? I’m hoping you see my point.

Reader Comments.

Great reading. You have opened my eyes to some interesting knowlege.

Steve Foulk your cuzzzzzz

213 631 8159

Posted by steve foulk | 11:53 pm on April 15, 2008.

Yea 404 Error pages are a big turn off! I don’t think twice and leave the site when i get the page not found or 404 error message.Dressing it up or even just a something to put you on the right page would be awesome!

Posted by josh s. | 8:47 pm on October 24, 2009.

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