Error pages. They're important (and 404 pages)

I am sure you have seen these messages lots of times
404 Page cannot be found!
Well there's a way to crete you own customized error page and it's easier than most people think. Here's how I did it:
I didn't like it when I found out I surfers can leave my site if they get that message.
When people get the blank "404" page and find themselves without any links or navigation var to help them get back to your site it's obvious
that they'll leave. So, basicaly what I did to design a page kind of similar to my site's site map the one that contains all of the site's information
such as links navigation var and so on. Why? because even if your site is perfectly design and works just fine chances are you'll get a error page
evntually; so I wanted to make sure that when people get the error page they get a page like the one I described above.
Error pages are the result of misspelled url's, and links, there might be some other reasons, I am niot sure. So make sure you type a brief message
like this:
" We're sorry. The file you were looking for could no be found, it may have been moved to a new location. Please use the navigation above to help you locate the file.
To go to the homw page cluck here > www.yoursite.com"
Now, my web hosting provider enables error pages, what that means is that in my control panel where I upload my html files and all of that there's
an option there where I can upload my custon erroer page. It's so easy, I think most hosting companies do, if not ask your to do so.
I hope you guys find this interesting and useful.
Check the link bellow, they have more info there:
http://www.404-error-page.com/404-cr...ror-page.shtml

thanks for that mate, yeh i totally agree a good thing with having your own error messages is that you can link people back to your site (homepage) which will keep them on your site and not just go to another one.

Error pages, like 404's should never diorientate a user either, it should just redirect back to the homepage, and the user should know what has happened, and where they are on the site, and what they can do to get where they wanted to go on the site.

A search box is useful, along with key places in the site, and it should fit in with the sites main template, like the iVirtua 404 page, so users can easily navigate away from the 404 page. Our 404 page is at http://www.ivirtuaforums.com/404.php

The BBC 404 page is useful, as is the Yahoo one as they use php scripts to show the URL that the user followed/mispelt and it tries to suggest where to find what you were looking for.

The Microsoft 404 page, which does not do this, actually shows a site map which in Microsofts page really does help, and is quite useful.

It just requires a little thought, and what is right for your site, be it a knowledgebase, community, article site or resource.