Where Missing Web Pages Go

Have you ever visited a website to make an order or to check for something but then all you get is a white page with a 404 error Page Not Found message? Yeah, I know that feeling, but in reality, where do those pages go?

Alright, let’s go find them and see what that annoying 404 Page Not Found message has to do with them.

When you go searching for a page or can’t complete a search, the 404 page is like a customer care centre that explains what’s wrong. Why should a search take you to an error page? Upsetting right? Usually, when you land on an error page it’s because the page you searched for is either broken or deleted.

it’s also bad news for the website owner, because Google penalizes the SEO ranking of sites with consistently high 404 error percentages as they will be less reliable for Web searchers and if a site has similar quality, keywords and internal/external links to another site but better PageRank, it will automatically perform much better than its competition in terms of SEO.

So what do e-commerce websites do to escape the penalty that Google pronounces on such websites?

They customize the site’s 404 Error Page to assist the would-be visitor in finding the website and to assure him or her that the issue is being addressed, (shh… I didn’t tell you that), because site owners know that links help sites rank better in search engines, positive social media does too and rankings mean business, the solution, therefore, boils down to making a non-existent page A.K.A 404 page. By returning a 200 “OK” code the search engine is fooled and the ranking benefit is still gained by the site, like this;

404 page

E-commerce websites in Nigeria that understand the trick behind keeping 404 pages active one way or the other have been able to creatively stay on top of their game and make some visitors laugh after getting their 404 messages.

Let’s see how they have managed to do so:

At Hotels.ng, “page not found” doesn’t mean “out of business,” landing on hotel.ng’s 404 page also means visitors can get a little information, sign up, log in, if they have an account already, go back to the homepage or find hotels using the search box on the 404 page. This interactive 404 page has a unique design that looks like this;

Page not found _ Hotels.ng

Konga.com has an error page that will make you laugh. With a cute dog and a message that apologetically states that you have landed on an error page while assuring “bingo the dog” that it is safe, one can also easily go back to the home page, create his/ her Konga account or just sign up which automatically takes you to the landing page. Take a look at Konga’s 404 page.

At OLX’s 404 error page, you have got to be hungry! Awaiting the visitor is a bread toaster with little crumbs of bread. Business does continue on this 404 page as you can still sell while on the page, you can also search for stuff or just return to the main page.

OLX_error_page

On Jumia’s Travel 404 error page, it’s an adventure! Even though the page you originally searched for “can not be found,” you can still carry out searches of hotels and destinations or simply return to its homepage, here’s what I mean;

Jumia_404 page