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You have spent countless hours creating an amazing website and you finally get to share the link and start sharing it with the world and inviting visitors to take a look and become customers.
Someone tries to visit your site and clicks a broken link or typed the address incorrectly and they end up at the generic Wix 404 Error page.
All of your hard work is undone and the first impression they have of your site is a generic Wix error page with no way of finding the correct address.
There are a lot of reasons why you might need a custom 404 error page for your Wix website. Maybe you want to manage the user experience better or keep people informed about what went wrong when they try to access a page that doesn't exist. It's also a great opportunity to promote your website or business in a fun and creative way!
Quick Links:
What is a 404 error page and why do you need one for your Wix website
What is a 404 error page?
The 404 error page is the web page that is displayed when you try to visit a website and the page you are trying to visit doesn't exist. This can happen for a variety of reasons, such as a broken link or if you mistyped the address. Wix websites automatically display the generic Wix 404 error page when someone visits a non-existent page.
Some of the reasons your visitors might end up on a 404 error page include:
They clicked on a broken link
They bookmarked a page that no longer exists
They typed in the wrong URL
Why do you need one for your Wix website?
There are a couple of reasons. First, it can help with your Wix SEO. If you have a custom 404 error page, you can redirect visitors to another page on your site. That way, they won't land on a dead end and leave immediately.
Second, it's a chance to be creative and have some fun with promoting your website or business. A custom 404 error page can be a great way to do that.
How to stop visitors from ending up on a 404 error page
There are a few things you can do to stop visitors from ending up on your Wix 404 error page.
The first is to make sure all of your links are working. If you have any broken links, fix them as soon as possible. You can use a tool like Wix SEO Wiz to help you find and fix broken links.
The second is to create redirects for any pages that have been moved or deleted. That way, visitors will be automatically redirected to the new page or the homepage. Wix has a really good feature to help prevent this. When you change a page URL Wix automatically sets up a redirect from the old URL to the new URL. You can switch off the automatic redirect if you need to. There are a few reasons why you might want to do that.
Why you might want visitors to land on a 404 Error page sometimes
There are, however, situations when you will want visitors to land on a 404 Error page. When you set up a 301 redirect, it should only ever be to a page of your site that offers something very similar.
If you have removed a product or service from your website and you no longer offer anything similar. For example, an eCommerce store that used to sell clothes and shoes has stopped selling shoes and has deleted the shoe page from their online store.
If they then set up a 301 redirect from the old shoe URL to land on the homepage, visitors would be confused because they would expect to see shoes when they click the link, but instead, they would end up on the home page. In this case, it would make more sense to let the old URL go to a 404 Error page.
It is also a message to search engines. If Google is crawling the shoe URL and ends up on the home page, it is going to be expecting the homepage to be all about shoes. When the crawl bot sees that's not what the homepage is about, it's going to report to Google that this page is not relevant. As a result, they will stop showing the page in search results. This type of problem can affect your entire site rankings, so you want to be sure you are setting up your 301 redirects properly. Letting the old URL go to a 404 page would be the best thing to do in these circumstances.
Examples of effective 404 error pages
Designing your 404 error page is an opportunity to get creative and have some fun. It's a fun way to showcase the personality of your brand.
Take a look at these examples of brands getting playful with their 404 error pages:
1. Ralph Woofington is an online shop for dogs.
They have used a funny picture of a dog that catches the attention and they have included a short message to help direct the visitor back to the homepage.
2. Bodi Slim is an Australian company that offers fat freezing.
They have decided to go with a play on words that their visitors will most likely find amusing and memorable:
3. Lake Buzz Candles is a Luxury Candle and home fragrance company.
They have used a play on words, and included their branding in a very clever way:
Try to have a bit of fun when you create the 404 error page for your Wix site. If you can put a smile on your visitors' faces at this stage then you are building up a good level of brand recognition.
How to create a custom 404 error page for your Wix website
Here's how to create a custom 404 error page for your Wix website:
1. Log into your Wix account and go to 'Edit Site'.
2. Click on the Menus and Pages icon in the left-hand sidebar and click '+ Add Page'
3. Select '404 Error Page' from the list and choose your favourite from the templates shown.
And that's it! Your 404 Error page will be added to your site, and the page will open up in the Wix editor. You can go ahead and change the images, adjust the layout and edit the text so it looks exactly the way you want it to. You can also head into the Wix mobile editor and perfect the way it appears on mobile. Why not try designing some cool graphics in Canva to really make your 404 page something special.
After you are done, don't forget to hit publish and then test it out by entering an incorrect link for your site into your internet browser.
We would love to see your amazing 404 error pages! Drop a broken link for your site into the comments below so we can go take a look at your masterpiece creations!
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NX Digital is a Wix website design and SEO company that helps small businesses grow online. We believe in the power of the web to help businesses succeed, and we're passionate about using Wix to create beautiful, effective websites that drive results. Our team of experts will help you get the most out of your website, from creating a stunning design to optimizing it for search engines. Let us show you how easy it is to take your business online!
Do you need help with your Wix SEO but don't have the budget for an SEO professional? Contact us to chat about our one-to-one SEO coaching sessions with NX Digital and learn how to do your own SEO! Each session will leave you with actionable points that you can implement and learn how to improve your won Wix SEO.
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