If you own a website having a 404 Error Page is very important, if a link is dead, moved or has never existed it will go to the 404 page which will help your visitors search for what they’re looking for or get back to the main website. In this collection we’ll be showcasing creative examples of 404 Error Pages for inspiration, these designs have been planned and put together beautifully and stand out from the usual 404 pages.

Accomplished webmasters and graphic designers will be all too familiar with the 404 error page problem. For those web surfers that are not as web site savvy the 404 error page is a technical server response that is delivered to the web browser when something cannot be found. This can occur when clicking on a link and the destination page or file is no longer there.

For example a web page that was produced and published in say 2005 might link out to pages that were highly popular at the time. Over the duration though these pages may get deleted, renamed moved or perhaps the original link has a typographical error and the author did not notice. Everyone of those instances can cause the 404 error page response message.

Stopping 404 Page Traffic Leaks

For those who run a web site, especially one which is extremely popular the 404 page can cause a lot of valuable traffic to leak away to other sites. Most users after all when faced with a 404 page will backtrack to Google and find a different site that offers the information they seek.

This is not good for traffic retention and page views. The solution is to go through your web site and eliminate as many 404 pages as possible. However you never get them all. Hence consider these ways of retaining the visitor once they land on the 404 page.

Traditionally 404 pages have been bland and dull, mostly very unexciting boring pages that just make the user want to leave the site immediately. Instead of this happening and losing traffic consider adding some useful site navigation to the page as well as some attractive graphics. Sometimes fun and humor helps retain a user as it resonates with the visitor.

Add a custom search box so that a user may search your web site for the content they were originally seeking in the first place. Provide as many logical ways as possible to get the user to hang around and not leave your site.

This way you plug the traffic leak and retain a user for longer. This means greater traffic, lower bounce rates, greater propensity of gaining revenue, ad clicks, email optins and so forth. You gain NONE of this if the user backs out and leaves the moment they see your 404 error page. So start plugging those traffic leaks!

34+ Creative Examples of 404 Error Pages for Inspiration

Here for some creative inspiration are a selection of amazing custom 404 error page designs. These 404 error page designs will provide some additional reasons to stay behind and use your web site. No need to lose web site visitors unnecessarily any longer with these unique 404 page ideas.

404 Error Page

 

Mixcloud

Citrex Hosting

Jean Delbrel

Error404

Sad Panda 404

PixiApps

Ready Photosite

Kilian Muster

Shit the Bed

Big Bad Collab

Virgilio 

On Air Agency

Marketing Virtuel

404 Design

Cuban Council

Detrans

East London

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