Short answer: A 404 page is what your site shows when someone asks for an address that doesn’t exist. Google suggests making it useful: say clearly that the page can’t be found, keep your site’s look and menu, link to popular pages and your home page, and let visitors report the broken link. It must still answer with a 404 code, or Google may treat it as a soft 404.
What a 404 page is
404 Not Found is the code a server returns when it has nothing at the address someone asked for. MDN Web Docs puts mistyped addresses and pages moved or deleted without a redirect at the top of the usual causes.
Without a custom page, visitors get the server’s bare error. In Google’s words, a good custom 404 page helps people find what they came for and gives them reasons to keep exploring.
What Google recommends, and what ours does
Google’s crawling documentation lists five tips for a useful custom 404 page, and asks for the 404 code on top.
| Google’s tip | In practice | On our 404 page |
|---|---|---|
| Say clearly that the page can’t be found | A short, plain heading | “This page is not here.” as the main heading |
| Use friendly, inviting language | Words that explain without blaming | It may have moved in our rebuild, or the address has a typo |
| Keep your site’s design and menus | Your header, menu and footer stay | The same header, menu and footer as every page |
| Link to popular pages and the home page | A short list of what people look for | Eight service, price and work links, plus the home page |
| Let visitors report the broken link | An email address or a short form | Our email address, added on November 3, 2026 |
| Return a 404 status code | The server answers 404, not 200 | 404 in English and in Spanish |
Google’s tips come from its crawling documentation on Google Search Central, read November 3, 2026. The last column is our own page.
How to set up your 404 page
- Visit an address on your site that doesn’t exist, such as /this-page-does-not-exist, and look at what appears.
- Check the status code it answers with, in your browser’s developer tools or with the URL Inspection tool.
- Write a short heading that says the page isn’t there, in plain words.
- Keep your header, menu and footer, so the page looks like the rest of your site.
- Add links to the pages people visit most, and one to your home page.
- Give visitors a way to tell you which link failed, such as your email address.
- Check the status code again after you change your theme, plugins or hosting.
On an Apache server, MDN shows how to point to your custom page with one line in the .htaccess file: ErrorDocument 404 /notfound.html.
Our guides to HTTP status codes and the soft 404 cover the codes in step 2 and what happens when an error page answers 200.
What to avoid
Don’t answer with a 200. Google calls an error page that sends 200 a soft 404, and it can hurt how Google understands and indexes your site. Google can flag a nearly empty page that answers 200 the same way. You can return a 404 and still show any content you want.
Don’t send every unknown address to your home page either; Google names that as the other common soft 404. And don’t block missing pages in robots.txt, because Google then can’t crawl them to see the 404.
Our own 404 page
On November 3, 2026, just after 1:00 PM, we opened two made-up addresses on our site, one per language. Each got a 404 code, a noindex tag and our error page, with the usual header, menu and footer.
The page met four of Google’s five tips. Nothing on it let visitors tell us about the link that failed, so at 1:10 PM we added a line with our email address under the buttons. At 1:11 PM we checked it in light and dark mode at 360, 390 and 1440 pixels wide.
Before you call your 404 page done
- A missing address answers with a 404 code, not 200.
- The heading says plainly that the page isn’t there.
- Your header, menu and footer are on the page.
- It links to your most visited pages and your home page.
- Visitors can tell you about the broken link.
- Missing pages don’t redirect to your home page.
RememberA 404 page is for people, and the 404 code is for search engines. You need a helpful page that says what happened and offers a way forward, sent with the right status code.
To have us check your error pages and status codes, see our technical SEO service.
Quick answers about 404 pages
What is a 404 page?
It’s the page your site shows when someone asks for an address that doesn’t exist, sent with the 404 Not Found status code. A custom 404 page replaces the server’s plain error with one that matches your site and helps people move on.
Does a custom 404 page hurt SEO?
Not if it answers with a 404 code. Google says you can return a 404 while showing whatever content you want. The problem is an error page that answers with a 200, which Google calls a soft 404.
Should I redirect every 404 to my home page?
No. Google warns that sending unknown addresses to your home page instead of returning a 404 hurts how it understands your site. Keep 301s for pages that moved or that another page now replaces, and let pages that are gone answer 404 or 410.
Does a 404 page need a noindex tag?
Not for Google. Google asks for the 404 code so the page stays out of its index, and that code already does the job. Our own 404 page carries noindex too, which does no harm.
Can a 404 page be funny?
Yes, in moderation. MDN says you can make your 404 page humorous and human, as long as visitors still understand why they are seeing something unexpected. Clear words come first.
Sources
Read on November 3, 2026. MDN Web Docs: 404 Not Found. Google Search Central blog: Do 404 errors hurt my site? Google Search Central documentation: Troubleshoot Google Search crawling errors. Our own case: our 404 page in English and Spanish, November 3, 2026.