“404 Page Not Found” errors are one of those curses of the web. Left to its own devices, your web server software will spit back a stark message that’s bound to at least annoy, if not downright discourage, your users. Some say it even affects your search engine rankings, though that doesn’t make much sense to me.

Certainly 404s can undermine users’ trust in your site. If visitors can’t find what they are looking for, they won’t link to it, and that could in a roundabout way affect your rankings. In the end, though, setting up a user-friendly 404 page is simply the right thing to do.

How to Set Up a Custom 404 Page

How you trigger your own customized 404 depends on your web host or server. For most of us this means checking the host’s documentation. In my experience, they all have it spelled out somewhere. Just search “404″ in their help section. What exactly you have to do will vary quite a bit. Some are as simple as entering a page to point to from the host’s control panel. Others will have you do a few kart-wheels such as setting up an “.htaccess” file. If you can’t find precisely what’s needed, contact your host.

What a Custom 404 Page Must Have

Once you know how to set up your 404 page, the next question is what do you include on it? Opinions vary. Mine is that there are three absolute requirements:

  • A simple apology. It’s important to be polite. We represent congregations, and should act accordingly.
  • Links back to the most helpful pages, such as the home page and the site map.
  • A way to contact you or someone else who can help.

If your site is over a certain size, include a search box. For many church sites, this will be overkill. If your site is only ten pages, don’t have a search box; just list your ten pages. If your site is 500+ pages, then a search box is a must.

One tip: if you add the following meta tag in the <head> section, search engines won’t end up accidentally indexing your 404 page:
<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,nofollow”>

Also, in case an example might help, here’s my church’s 404.

Further Information

For more in depth 404 information, inspiration and even amusement, there’s no better place than the 404 Research Lab. Even if you don’t need 404 help, the lab is worth a quick visit for any serious web geek or diva.