How you can still profit from your 404 website error
What is a 404 error code?
Errors and Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
Make the most out of your 404 page
It’s estimated that 70% of users who encounter a 404 page will leave the site and not return, but we believe that you can turn these negative user experiences into positive ones, and even a profit. Here are some of the ways we believe that you can use your 404 page messaging to increase the percentage of users staying on the site, and increase conversions from these:
Add a search box
By adding a search box, you’re offering your users the chance to find what they actually want. It can also help teach you what they’re actually looking for. Adding a search box will also encourage them to search on your site, so they don’t go to other sites, or search engines to look for the products or services you offer.
Turn it into a lead magnet
What are lead magnets? They are exclusive pieces of content designed as an incentive for an action, for example downloading an ebook or signing up for a newsletter. These help keep users engaged with your business.
This article on hubspot has some great ideas on different types of lead magnets that you can offer from webinars and cheat sheets to ‘secret’ behind the scenes insights.
You might also want to add your social media feed so they can see what you post and follow you, or maybe suggest they download your app with the click of a button.
Offer more reasons to stay on your site
The user may not have found what they were looking for when they reach a 404 error, but you can use this page to display other articles, products and services you have available.
- If you’re interested in things that are lost, NPR has a great 404 page: https://www.npr.org/404
- GIPHY wants you to see what GIFs are trending: https://giphy.com/explore/hdskvklds/
- And Urban Outfitters have a tumbleweed animation, teamed with popular products you might be interested in: https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/404
You might also want to try offering the user a discount code for your ecommerce site. This might make up for the inconvenience of landing on a 404 page, which might also keep them browsing.
Make sure the page includes your company identity
Something’s gone wrong so why not take this opportunity to share your company identity with the customer. This can leave a positive, lasting impression. Whether it’s:
- Cute - Like Amazon dogs where you can meet one of the 7000 dogs that hopefully aren’t have a ruff day at work.
- Charitable - This example from Seer Interactive who are tracking errors and donating to charity for each one users hit.
- Playful - Like this example from Kualo where you actually get sidetracked for several minutes playing space invaders.
- Fun - Such as Lego’s reference to it’s movie.