How to customise your 404 Page on Squarespace
Imagine you’re doing a little “online window shopping”.
You’re treating yourself to something nice. It’s been a while, right?
You find JUST the thing you’re looking for. Maybe it’s a new boss outfit, a new cafe, or maybe that course just opened up for enrolments!
By now, you’re suuuuper excited to book, buy or invest.
You’re practically salivating at the almost tangible taste of that decadent, smooth coffee at that cafe.
You can practically feel how amazing your new boss-outfit is going to feel against your skin and the confidence it will exude.
You know without a doubt that your ideal clients are going to LOVE the new skills you’ll be able to offer after you finish that course.
Whatever it is, you know without a doubt it’s going to be simply glorious.
Fuelled by adrenaline, you click the link to book, buy or invest in that particular thing.
Then nothing.
Instead, you find yourself in no-mans land, staring at a dull error page, that says, “Page not found”.
The letdown is real. The dream you were just envisioning vaporises in a flourish.
What do you do next?
The most common response is to close the tab and look elsewhere. Why? Because it’s a saturated market with so many other options. It’s easier to just look elsewhere.
It is the exact same for your ideal clients.
Don’t lose your ideal clients because of a generic 404 Error Page.
Think about it.
You’re unlikely to hire a service provider or buy from a store because you were redirected to an error page, because the inconvenience is real and with such a saturated market, it’s easy enough to find someone else.
It is the exact same for your potential clients.
If they are redirected to a generic 404 Error Page, I can guarantee that you have just lost that client and their business.
Meaning you just lost that greatly-needed pay day.
But it doesn’t have to be that way! There is hope!
Creating a fully-customised, on-brand 404 Error Page on Squarespace can help save those potential clients!
What causes the 404 Error Page in the first place?
Usually the link is broken due to a typo, or in some cases, the page / URL no longer exists and hasn’t been redirected to the new page properly. Either way, the standard 404 Page is pretty ugly and costly to your business.
Let’s do this!
Step 1:
Go to your Squarespace Account Dashboard + click on your website.
It should look a little bit like this:
Step 2:
Go to > ‘Pages’ > ‘Not Linked +’ > Select a ‘blank page’ OR ‘page layout’
Soon you will be able to customise to your hearts’ content!
For visual learners like Chloe, this is what it will look like:
Step 3:
Optimise your 404 Page Settings.
Next to your new page is the ‘gear icon’ for your settings.
You’ll want to click on that to bring up all the back-end settings for your new 404 Page.
It will bring up a window like this:
In this window, go through all your settings and make sure they’re ready to go.
General
Customise your page + navigation titles
Create a custom 404 URL Slug (eg. our is www.happenedbydesign.com.au/404)
SEO
If you’re not entirely sure what SEO is, it stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Ideally you would use researched keywords that you incorporate into your copy throughout your website in a natural way.
Not sure how to pick keywords?
Google Ads have an awesome keyword planner that will help you research and get discovered on google.
Customise your SEO Title
Add an SEO description
Social Image
This is the image that people will see if you share this page on social media
(Personally we don’t have this set up because it’s not a page we tend to share, though it’s probably not a terrible idea to put our logo up!)
The ideal size for social sharing image for Squarespace is approximately 1200 x 628px.
Advanced
This is for custom code injections to enhance particular areas of the page.
This isn’t something we really recommend unless you’re comfortable finding the right code you need and learning the basics of code etc.
Step 4:
Customise your 404 Error Page with your branding!
This is the fun part where you can be as creative as you like. Brownie points if you use some humour!
You could choose to add a funny gif, image, or write something like:
“Oops, it looks like the page you’re looking for has vanished into the online abyss. Let’s get you back on track.”
On your 404 Error Page, make sure you include:
Buttons to the *most* important pages on your website.
This might include:Home
Services
Book an appointment
Portfolio
Shop
Blog
Tech Support Form
This is a great way for your clients to quickly and conveniently inform you when something isn’t working! That way you can get is fixed as soon as possible!
Be sure to provide instructions on the form (yes, really!) to communicate that you appreciate their feedback
Include an estimated timeline of how long it will take for the client to receive a response and,
How long will the problem take to solve
PRO TIP: Label your contact form to something like “404 Form” or “Tech Support Form” so that when you’re notified of that particular form being submitted, you know exactly where on your website it’s coming from and what it’s likely to be about.
Need a visual? You can see what our 404 Error Page looks like here:
BONUS TIP:
** If you change an *existing* URL the quickest way to update this across your Squarespace website is to go:
Settings > Advanced > URL Mappings
Then REDIRECT the OLD URL > the NEW URL
(This makes it a heck of a lot quicker than checking & changing every single button & link on your website!)
STEP 5:
Link your new on-brand 404 Error Page
> Go to ‘Design’ (if you’re not sure, refer to the image below!)
> Then go to the ‘404 Page’
(If you’re still with me and wondering if it ever ends - we are so so close!)
The last step is super easy.
Under the 404 Page (which explains how it will redirect a page that the server can’t locate), there is a drop down menu with all your pages.
Finally: Select the 404 page you just created!
Congratulations, you did it!
Simple, right?!
Let us know in the comments how you went. We’d love to hear from you!