Often times when a visitor encounters a 404 page it is usually due to a broken link, a deleted page or a mistyped URL. It sends back a HTTP status code of 404 that indicates the page is not found and no other information is provided.
By creating a good custom 404 page for your website, will help people find the information they are looking for and need. This is a great opportunity to keep visitors on your site and redirect them to their destination. A few things you can add to your custom 404 to make it friendlier for users:
- Use friendly message notifying users that what they are looking for can’t be found.
- Make sure your 404 page is similar to your actual site.
- Make sure Google isn’t indexing the 404 page or other search engines, make sure your webserver returns a 404 HTTP status code.
- Make sure there is a way for users to navigate a way to report a broken link.