Our 10 Best 404 Pages: How To Take Advantage of Hidden Pages

Have you ever followed a broken link, only to discover a laugh-out-loud funny error message? That’s a hidden page. Hidden pages are a crucial part of the user experience on your website.

When building websites, we ensure that these pages include on-brand, entertaining copy and a call to action that invites people to engage further with the site and the brand, so that the dead end of finding a broken link or submitting a form doesn’t mean the end of their experience on your side.

You can use your 404 to build your brand and create a fun, engaging experience for your users! For ideas on how you can use yours more effectively, check out our 10 best 404 pages.

Our 10 Best 404 Pages And How They Can Work For Your Site

#1: Share Your Company Culture

Our own 404 page was designed to share our unique company culture, by sharing our favorite out-of-context quotes from Tytanium team members.

The 404 page for our own site, one of our 10 best 404 pages.

#2: Put A Human Spin On What You Do

The 404 page for Wildwood Customs, a custom furniture builder, gives a human look at the team behind their beautiful designs, showing two of their team members playing with a pile of wood shavings. The effect is completed by a corny decorating joke and a button back to the home page.

The 404 page for Wildwood Cutoms, one of our 10 best 404 pages.

#3: Use It To Generate Leads

The 404 page for Brookfields, a local restaurant serving classic American diner food, invites customers to view the restaurant’s menu.

The 404 page for Brookfields Restaurant, one of our 10 best 404 pages.

#4: Make A Joke About Your Services

Legion AVS uses their 404 page to make a joke about their audio services and makes it easy for lost users to return back to the home page.

The 404 page for Legion AVS, one of our 10 best 404 pages.

#5: Make A Joke Tailored To Your Users

Finding a 404 page is frustrating, so relieve that feeling by making your user laugh! The Placer County Association of Realtors website makes a joke about real estate home tours designed to entertain their target user – real estate agents.

The 404 page for PCAR, one of our 10 best 404 pages.

#6: Make A Fun Reference

Who doesn’t love a Mary Poppins reference? This one is an especially good fit for the sweeping company, Central Valley Sweeping.

The 404 page for CVS, one of our 10 best 404 pages.

#7: Really, Everybody Loves A Reference

Cooper Realty uses a different take on the pop culture reference, this time featuring an image of a home.

The 404 page for Cooper Realty, one of our 10 best 404 pages.

#8: Make An Inside Joke With Your User

The 404 page for Jose L. Bandala, DDS makes a crack about the one line no dental patient wants to hear, but almost everyone has. “You’re bleeding because you didn’t floss.”

The 404 page for Bandala DDS, one of our 10 best 404 pages.

#9: Make That Terrible Pun That You’ve Always Wanted To

There’s no better place than the 404 page to break out a truly awful joke. 1-888-4-Abatement is an abatement company that offers asbestos removal services, and they want their site to be as-best-os it can be. Ba-dum-chh.

The 404 page for 1-888-4-Abatement, one of our 10 best 404 pages.

#10: Feature Imagery Relevant To Your Brand

Premier Homes, a home builder, uses another quick quip on their 404, but the real star of this hidden page is the beautiful entryway to one of their homes.

The 404 page for Premier Homes, one of our 10 best 404 pages.

Your website should be a complete, engaging experience for your users. You’re not just telling the story of your brand and how you can help your customers on your home and services pages, that narrative is woven throughout the site. So seemingly minor pages like the 404 page can’t be overlooked. You’ve seen our best 404 pages, how will you make users laugh with yours?

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