sus.botdocs

QA finding

The "page not found" page offers no way back into the site

QA Warning Severity: Medium

Part of the audit Error pages and server messages. Finding id: qa.notFoundPageNoWayBack.

What it costs you

Visitors who follow an old or mistyped link reach a dead end and leave, instead of finding what they came for.

What to do

Add the site's navigation, a link to the home page and a search box to the 404 page.

What it checks

  • Missing page has no way back

How to fix it

Give the 404 page a way back

  1. Build the 404 page from the normal page template, so it has the menu and the footer.
  2. Add a short sentence that the page was not found, a link to the home page and a search box.
  3. Keep the status 404.

How to check: Open a made-up address on the site: the page has links to the site, and curl -sI shows status 404.