Custom Error Pages
Have you ever visited a website where you clicked a link and were taken to a none descript error page? Maybe you clicked a link on another website or in the search engine results and ended up at an error page. This is because the website you are visiting (or trying to visit) does not use custom error pages.
As a website visitor, wouldn’t you find something like this a little more useful:
Than seeing something like this:
What are Error Pages?
Error pages are web pages shown to the website visitor when something has gone wrong with the web page they have requested. They will also been shown when there is a server error.
Common errors you may encounter:
- 403 Forbidden
You have requested to view a web page or directory to which you are not allowed.
The webmaster may have put security in place so that certain web pages are not available to the general public (you have to be logged in to view) or that certain directories on the web server are not available for viewing.
- 404 Not Found
The web page you requested cannot be found on the web server.
This is caused by:
- A link to a non existing page was clicked.
- A page has been moved or renamed and the web designer did not put a permanant 301 redirect in place.
- Someone found an old listing in a search engine or directory results and clicked it.
- The user made a typing error when manually typing the url of a web page.
- 500 Internal Error
There’s something wrong on the web server and it cannot process your request or update.
What are Custom Error Pages?
Custom error pages are pages shown to your website visitors which match your website theme when an error has occured within your website. The error can be caused by different things, the most common is the 404 – File Not Found error.
How Do I Create a Custom Error Page?
Note: Consult your web hosting documentation how to implement custom error pages, if allowed. A free web hosting account or when a hosted solution is being used, you may not be able to use custom error pages.
- Start by taking a copy of your website template and saving it with the appropriate name for the error you are creating it for. Consult the web hosting documentation as to the naming convention you should use.
- Include in the body (content) area:
- a precise description of what has happened, written in plain english, not a techical explaination.
- a search box if you have website search enabled on the website.
- a link to the website sitemap. (the traditional type, not to be confused with the sitemaps for Google or Yahoo)
- a list of possibly related links.
- a contact form (or link to) so the visitor can notify you of the error.
For more ideas on creating a custom error page, refer to:
The Perfect 404 – Article on creating the perfect custom error page by AList Apart.
Improving the Dreaded 404 Error Message – An article by usability expert Jacob Nielsen on creating a user friendly custom error page.
- Make the links to the images and styles for the page absolute as you may not know in advance what the relationship between your error page location and the page requested will be.
- Add the necessary server side instructions to implement your custom error pages.
On an Apache server you would use the .htaccess file for example. Consult the web hosting documentation for what they require.
Further Reading on Custom Error Pages
Trap 404 Errors on ASP and Report to Webmaster 404 Error Report – Used to catch 404 errors and report them to the webmasters email address. Also gives user a friendly message.
404 Research Lab – Research and information on custom 404 error pages.
Create a custom error page on 1and1 Linux Hosting
Custom Error Pages for Blogs:
- Creating an Error 404 Page – Wordpress
- Custom Error Pages – Joomla!
- Custom Error – Drupal
Do It Yourself 404 – contains techincal information for different web servers.
A More Useful 404 – A List Apart
Designers Creative Solutions for Necessary Error Pages
60 Really Cool and Creative Error 404 Pages
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April 8th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Great post! I dont understand why so many webmasters neglect having custom error pages. When someone follows a broken link or something, they dont stick around to fix the problem if they see a standard 404 page, they just leave. That is why it is imperative to have custom error pages. Great post!
August 12th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
[...] your website hosting has not been set up with a custom error page, the visitor will be sent to a generic web host error page. This is very confusing for the visitor [...]
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:45 pm
[...] You may have also seen errors pages where they are styled exactly like the rest of the website. These are custom error pages. [...]
October 14th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
[...] If the website still exists, you will end up at a 404 error page. If the website does not have custom error pages, then you will see a web server error page. When the website does not exist any more, you will see [...]
December 16th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Error 404 Page is very important to company website. : ) Your post is great!
January 29th, 2009 at 2:50 am
Great stuff. 404 is an important error page. And the ability to customize it is really awesome. Great job with the post. keep it up. Cheers
April 7th, 2009 at 10:20 am
I agree, a custom 404 error page is a great service to your visitor and can help your bottom line.
April 21st, 2009 at 5:40 am
I think having a 404 page is nice, it makes whoever went to your site and found a non existing page that you are not letting them down and that they can find their way back onto the path.
May 5th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Thanks for the post on how to create error pages.
now i can create one.
thanks!.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:33 am
I dont understand why so many webmasters neglect having custom error pages. When someone follows a broken link or something, they dont stick around to fix the problem if they see a standard 404 page, they just leave. That is why it is imperative to have custom error pages. Great post!
July 10th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
[...] problem with free web hosting is that you will not be able to use custom error pages. Error pages are used by the web server to show the visitor there has been an error. For example, a [...]
July 11th, 2009 at 3:52 am
When someone follows a broken link or something, they dont stick around to fix the problem if they see a standard 404 page, they just leave. That is why it is imperative to have custom error pages. Great post!
July 13th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I don’t understand why so many webmasters neglect having custom error pages. When someone follows a broken link or something, they don’t stick around to fix the problem if they see a standard 404 page, they just leave. That is why it is imperative to have custom error pages. Great post!
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:52 am
Wordpress has its own 404 pages, which use the site template and may be easily setup to include links to existing relevant pages of the site (i.e. index page, main categories and so on).
Another issue with 404 pages is that they need to return the ‘404 – Page not found’ in header, in order to be accordingly classified by search engines, but this is another issue …