I’m sure most of us have come across a site at one time or another where you’ve clicked on a link that takes you to a 404 error page. The Web savvy people out there know what it means and aren’t put off by it, we simply click “back” and find another way to get to the information we were looking for. Now, think about this same situation from the perspective of someone who uses the Internet maybe once a month.

After ten minutes of searching for information they find what they need, but when they click the link in the search results it takes them to a scary looking “404 Not Found” page with big dark letters. The knee jerk reaction would be to click on the “back” button and find another website because, to an unskilled web user, they’ve reached a dead end…and that’s what you want to avoid.

When a visitor has reached a dead end that’s not good, so consider doing something that’s rising in popularity. Customize your 404 page if at all possible by setting up a new rule in your “.htaccess” file.

This is a great way to improve a sites usability. When you’re trying to come up with some design ideas for a 404 page check out some examples that Sitepoint has gathered. Most of them are entertaining but helpful at the same time.

Don’t be afraid to give your custom 404 pages some personality, we are human after all and having a page like this can improve the users experience and keep them on your site for a longer period of time.