Giving Your 404 Page a Character: 20 Best Examples

As a website owner, you want to drive as much traffic as possible to your website. However, incorrect searches and improper links often prevent users from accessing website information. The 404 error pages that result from these incorrect searches can be the arch nemeses to website owners because they often cause visitors to abandon website searches and thus, reduce website traffic.

While you can’t prevent all users from encountering a 404 error page when navigating your website, you can help them overcome the issue and find the information they desire. Here are 20 examples of creative 404 error pages designed to reduce user frustration.

Huwshimi

Huwshimi’s 404 error page offers a comic riddle to visitors on how can they locate the information they were trying to access.

Wulffmorgenthaler

The creative professionals at Wulffmorgentahaler hoped to relieve 404 error page encounter frustrations with an entertaining comic strip.

CSSREMIX

The developers at CSSREMIX obviously understand how emotional some people become when encountering 404 error pages.

Chris Jennings

This dark, yet comical 404 error page is a perfect example of how a little uniqueness can improve a frustrating experience.

Abduzeedo

Abduzeedo’s error page offers a fun spin on being lost in cyberspace.

Redbilby

Redbilby’s error page is one of the few that incorporates an original graphics and animation.

Henrik Hedegaard

Henrik Hedegaard’s 404 error page uses a well known cartoon character to catch the attention of frustrated visitors.

Home Star Runner

Home Star Runner’s error page proves you do not always need to be polite when informing visitors of their mistake.

Habrahabr

Unless you speak Russian, you may not understand the text on this 404 error page. However, the image itself is self explanatory to be understood.

Alistapart

This error page provides great resources to bring visitors back to their correct search path.

Surfing on Static

Surfing on Static’s 404 error page features one of the most original approaches in error page creation.

Center’d

The creators of Center’d are hoping to comfort their error page visitors with a cute and cuddly kitten.

Leap Anywhere

Leap Anywhere capitalizes on the latest sketch graphic trend with their creative 404 error page.

LookItsMe

Great animation and humor makes the error page from LookItsMe very effective.

Justin.tv

This error page image is effective for its relevance to the original website’s niche market.

Carsonified

Straightforward and resourceful – that’s what makes Carsonified’s error page so effective.

Chris Glass

Sometimes, simpler is better, as proven by Chris Glass’ 404 error page.

Tobias Ahlin

Most of the time, the only thing that is needed to make a point is a solid quote as shown on Tobias Ahlin’s error page.

Mark Dijkstra

Mark Dijkstra’s 404 page features a hand-written trend which is also popular with many other current error pages.

XHTML Kitchen

This error page takes pride for its very modern and inviting design.

With a little creative insight, you can see that it’s possible to transform a frustrating situation into a little bit of humorous relief. By assisting your website visitors in as many ways as possible, you will improve their overall experience and most especially, drive more traffic to your products and services.