What Does 404 Error Mean? How To Customize your Wix 404 Page!

At one time or another, we’re sure that you’ve seen a “404 Page Not Found” error message pop up on your screen when searching for a nonexistent URL.

If not, do me a favor and click or type, “www.nbmsllc.com/marketingrocks” into your browser and see what pops up.

While Super Mario is not a part of the NB Media Solutions team, we customized our Wix 404 page to look a little different than what it typically does for other Wix websites.

404 Response: On Wix

Let’s talk about what a Wix error 404 error message means before we dive into how to customize your own Wix 404 page.

In the past, if a visitor searched for a URL on your Wix website that didn’t exist, the dead links would simply reroute the visitor to your home page.

Broken links now display a ‘Wix Error 404’ message on your web browser screen.

A Wix 404 response simply means that the link is no longer active. You could have mistyped a URL or the original link has been deleted or moved. The message: “Page Not Found” with the 404 code looks like this:

Standard Wix 404 error page

The Wix website error code 404 explains the reason for the message and provides website visitors with a button that takes them back to the homepage of your website.

The reason that Wix changed this feature from automatically taking visitors back to the homepage, to displaying an error message instead, is because they want website visitors to understand that the specific page URL they searched for does not exist.

Site visitors may have not understood why a URL link (that is different from the website’s homepage) was constantly rerouting them back to the homepage.

Wix made this clear to consumers so now, they know that the URL is nonexistent.

To alleviate this issue in full from your website you can pay attention to the Google Search Console and replace dead links or deleted pages with 301 redirects. This will send your non working URLs to pages you specify that you want traffic to go to.

Wix Custom 404 Page

The custom 404 page Wix enabled allows their users to create their own message, and you can get as creative as you’d like.

Here are a few examples of some creative designs that other websites have designed, including our own!

NB Media Solutions:

Mr. Wet Wall:

Pixar:

The Artery:

Spotify:

Lego:

As you can see, there are numerous options out there on how to make your 404 error page as unique as you want it.

While all of these examples weren’t made on the Wix platform, Wix offers tons of options if you’re looking to design your own 404 error page.

Customize 404 Error Page: On Wix

When you create a website, you can leave the 404 error page like the standard, blue and white, “Page Not Found” option above, or you can design it to match your website’s style.

The latter gives users an enhanced customer experience, and also has the power to contribute to your brand identity if you design it to match your business’s style.

In addition to the custom design, you can also write a helpful message to navigate your users back to browsing.

A Wix website error 404 page is easy to customize if you follow these easy steps:

1. Before you begin, make sure that you're subscribed to Wix’s Premium Plan, since this feature is not yet available for the Editor X plan.

2. After you have ensured your subscription, go to the Settings tab at the top left corner of the editor.

3. Click on Error Page (404) link towards the bottom of the list.

4. Click Get Started. Once you begin, you’ll notice that a new hidden page is added to your website with default content.

5. Customize your design as you please. Here are some ideas on how to spruce up your custom 404 error page:

   1. Change the verbiage to match the tone of your website (humor, seriousness, etc.)

   2. Add a site menu and popular links that your visitors may be looking for when receiving a ‘404 Page Not Found’ error message. This will keep users on your website instead of leaving it shortly after receiving the message.

   3. Change your default image by clicking on the image, Change the Vector Art, All Categories drop-down menu, select Technology and choose another image.

6. Click Publish once you’re happy with your design and your Wix custom 404 page is good to go!

7. To test out how it looks on your live site, enter a wrong URL for your website (by typing in something random after your domain name).

If you have any questions, comments or concerns on how to create or navigate through an error 404 Wix page, contact NB Media Solutions on our website!