Custom Error Pages

404 Error Image Road Sign

Look Good Making Mistakes!

Broken Links occasionally occur, and redirects help guide users when site structure and/or page names change. To ensure a good user experience, create a custom error page (click here for example).

Without custom error pages, broken links and other errors yield a terse generic error message and no options. Custom Error Message pages can apologize for the error, and helpfully provide the user with full navigation options (menus).

Humorous Custom Error Pages "Humanize" Your Site:

Live Yourself, LLC Error Page
Karl Kelman Error Page

Common Error Types

404 - Page Not Found -The most common error

401 - Authorization Required (password and related errors)

403 - Not Permitted (trying access files (databases, etc.) unavailable through web browsers)

500 - Server Error - Server Unable to Display Page

"404" Error - Page Not Found

The most common error is the 404 Error code - Page Not Found.

Other Errors

Other common error codes:

401 - Authorization Required (commonly trying to access a page that requires a password without going through the log-in page) 403 - Not Permitted (trying access files (databases, etc.) unavailable through web browsers) 500 - Server Error

Sample Error Handling for Apache 2.0

Apache

Sastrugi's Error Handling

.htaccess file code:

# Error Page Redirect


ErrorDocument 400 /errors/failedrequest
ErrorDocument 401 /errors/authorizerequired
ErrorDocument 403 /errors/notpermitted
ErrorDocument 404 /errors/missing
ErrorDocument 500 /errors/internalerror

Some sites redirect to the home page on an error. However, users weren't expecting the home page, and may be uncertain why they arrived there. A message explaining that the last link was broken is much more informative. Users won't be trapped in a loop looking a page that no longer exists.