How & why you should create a custom “404 Not Found” page in Squarespace
You know when you click a link to a website and it’s like “Oops, this page doesn’t exist!”, well, that’s what we’re talking about today. Squarespace makes it super easy to customize this page, but a lot of people overlook doing this. Why would you do it? Either way, the person clicking the link isn’t going to get to the page they’re looking for, right? So why does it matter…
Why would you customize your Not-Found Page?
If people navigate to your website and land on a ‘page not found’ notice, chances are they will quickly navigate away from your site because they can’t find what they were looking for. The aim of the website game is to keep people on your site. If they land on a default 'page not found' page, they’re probably going to just leave. But, if you customize this page, you might just be able to keep them around - woohoo!
"But I don’t have any broken links on my website!" - everyone
You may not, actually, if you’ve looked over your website properly, you really shouldn’t have any. But here’s the catch for a lot of us biz owners: if you post a lot of links around the interwebs (eg, if you use Pinterest or any sort of Social Media for your biz) then you’re bound to have some faulty links in there somewhere. There’s a very good chance that there are going to be people landing on your site on a 'not found' page at some point.
Either way, it doesn’t take much effort to improve your not-found page so that visitors might actually stick around, so you should definitely do it!
What should you put on your custom Not-Found page
Currently, your website will have its default “page not found” in place. This is the default Squarespace one:
It doesn’t offer much information, just a “try again” and a “return to our homepage”. As soon as people see the error, they’re likely to navigate away. This Squarespace not-found page default is actually pretty handy, and better than having nothing at all, but there’s a ton we can do to improve it and to keep people on our website, like:
Add an eye-catching heading
Rather than just saying “404 PAGE NOT FOUND”. If a visitor sees this, there’s a good chance they will be gone before they read the rest of the page.
Try to use something more human and personable, this will catch your visitors attention and make them read more. Some ideas are:
“Uh oh! You might be lost, but don't leave just yet!”
“Woops, we can’t find the page you’re looking for, but stick around…”
“Hey! You’ve landed on a page that doesn’t exist (sorry!) But check this out…”
Add a search bar
I like to add a search bar on this page, so visitors can search for what they came to see in the first place! You can use the Search Bar block to add this.
I also recommend writing something like “Use the search bar below, or the main navigation above to find what you’re looking for!”
Add a contact form
“Still can’t find what you’re looking for but want to get it touch?”. Add a contact form to the bottom of your page so people can contact you from there if they want to. And trust me on this one, it works! I’ve had visitors contact me via the contact form on my 404 page.
Anything else you think might interest visitors
You can really add anything to this page that you think will keep your visitors around. Maybe an opt in? An About Me section? A Carousel of your best-selling products? Whatever you think we’ll get ‘em hooked!
Keep it on brand
Remember to keep this page on brand too. Add your logo and any images, put some thought into the design of this page. Though make sure to not over clutter it, keep the search bar and the navigation obvious so they can click through to your site and find the page they were looking for.
How do you set it up the custom 404 / Not-Found page?
It’s super simple! Just head over to your Squarespace site and add a new Blank Page in the Not Linked section.
Call this page something like “not found” or “404”.
Design your new page as your 404 page, adding a search bar, contact form blocks and whatever else you want to add.
Once you have finished your page, head back to your main menu and click Design > 404 Page > Then choose your new page from the dropdown list of pages.
Remember to click save, and, voila! You now have custom 404 page, congrats!
Want more tips? Check these out!
Should you use Squarespace Email Campaigns? Pros and Cons
How to add a chatbox to your Squarespace site (for free!)
How to create a media library in Squarespace
Why you should use Squarespace for your sales pages
How to secure your Squarespace website & why you need to!
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