No one ever wants their website to fail. According to a recent study, nearly 75% of people will leave a website and never return if they receive just one standard 404 error message. Indeed, most people believe that a 404 message infers that the website is not well maintained and the information they’re looking for can’t be found there.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. Even the very best websites will have a 404 message on occasion – whether that’s due to page relocation, an incorrect URL, server misconfiguration, or an outdated link – but this doesn’t mean they’re broken or badly maintained. Unfortunately, a 404 error page cannot show exactly what the problem is, which makes it easy for users to assume the worst and go elsewhere for their information – or, even worse, a sale.
Clever 404: Explained
There has, seemingly, been a remedy for this, however. Over the last few years, many businesses have instilled a web design that showcases a ‘clever 404’. This essentially turns 404 pages into a piece of art – a part of the website that the business hopes their customers will never find but has been optimised to increase the chances of lead survival.
As we mentioned previously, a broken link or an incorrect URL will inevitably happen at some point. A clever 404 preempts this by acting a little like an Easter egg – a hidden treat that has been buried in the site and comes across as a unique, fun surprise for the user, instead of something frustrating.
The Thought Process Behind Clever 404
The idea behind this is quite a simple one. A big part of the web design process in 2024 is entertaining and engaging customers – no matter what the web page is, there must be strong information, coupled with interactive animation, to keep the user actively involved. Clever 404 ensures that this doesn’t end when there’s an error message.
We’ve talked several times about how long a website has, to entice a user – if you want to avoid a building bounce rate, it’s essential to put everything into a good UX to keep a lead from leaving. The same thought process is behind clever 404 – if you want to stop a user from automatically exiting the page, there needs to be something there that grabs their attention and reverses a negative reaction into a positive one.
How Does Clever 404 Work?
Many companies have achieved this by providing a fun surprise, amusing and entertaining, whilst also reinforcing the brand identity. This can be in a small way – LEGO’s 404 page features a broken brick with the message: ‘Sorry, we can’t find that page, but we hope you’ll find this one instead!’ – or it could be a little more interactive – Bluegg’s 404 page features a game where you can play ‘Where’s Wally’ to find the missing page itself. The point is, that it upgrades the 404 page into a piece of art, leaving a memorable impression that resonates with the company’s ethos and values. It also encourages a positive click.
Take Netflix, for instance. They’ve livened their 404 page with CSS animation and parallax scrolling, complete with a still from the movie Lost in Space. The page asks if you’ve ‘lost your way’, and it proceeds to give you a link to the Netflix home page, where you can ‘find loads to explore’. By providing a clear route back to a working page, the user has an option to remain on the site, and therefore doesn’t have a reason to get too frustrated. It has recognised that the user has received an annoying error, and it has tried to remedy it, while also providing them with a neat, amusing page in the meantime.
Should You Use a Clever 404?
As we mentioned in the beginning, no one wants their website to go wrong, or for the user to find an error message instead of the page they’re looking for. But unfortunately, this kind of thing has become inevitable, and that has put the emphasis on the website design to lessen the effects. While a clever 404 doesn’t guarantee that a lead will stick around, it does put the odds back in the business’s favour for optimal conversion rate.
It shows to the user that they have accounted for this possibility, and that they’re still in the main site environment – plenty of 404 messages can feel like a user has been taken out of the site already, and therefore makes it easier for them to get their information elsewhere. It doesn’t hurt to include a fun, interesting 404 page on your website, so have a think about your brand and have a little fun with it yourself.
