Archive for the ‘seo news’ Category
Wednesday, January 24th, 2024
TikTok is trialing 30-minute long video uploads for some users in the beta version of its app.
Why we care. Longer videos may provide more opportunities to place ads in the middle of clips, known as mid-roll ads. These mid-roll ads often lead to higher completion and engagement rates.
First look. The new upload option was first spotted by social media consultant, Matt Navarra. He shared a screenshot of the TikTok pop-up notification on his Threads account:
Why now? TikTok’s choice to allow longer video uploads follows Douyin’s move, the Chinese version of TikTok, which extended its upload limit to 30 minutes per clip in 2022 and received a positive response.
Time line. TikTok has regularly increased the maximum duration allowed for each post over the years:
- 15 seconds per clips in 2018.
- 60 seconds per clip in 2019.
- 3 minutes per clip in 2020.
- 5 minutes per clips in 2021.
- 10 minutes per clips in 2022.
- 15 minutes per clip in 2023.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Deep dive. Read our report on how non-skippable video ads may harm engagement for more information.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Wednesday, January 24th, 2024
Meta introduced new tools and features to existing tools that enable brands to monitor their reputation across its platforms. They include:
- Brand Rights Protection (updated).
- Rights Manager (updated).
- Intellectual property reporting center (new).
These tools make it easier for businesses to monitor brand impersonation, prevent scams, report intellectual property infringement, and block infringing content across Facebook and Instagram.
Why we care. Safeguarding reputation is table stakes for brands. Brands associated with inappropriate or controversial content risk alienating customers and prospects. Tools that make it easier for brands to protect their reputations are welcome additions.
Brand Rights Protection. Meta is updating this tool to make it easier for brands to protect their intellectual property across its platforms using machine learning. The new version simplifies the process of reporting infringement and business impersonation, helping brands identify and address misuse of their intellectual property. Updates include:
- Improved matching: Find matches based on your past use of Brand Rights Protection.
- Cross-surface searching: Search across Ads, Commerce, Accounts, and Posts simultaneously without re-entering search terms each time.
- Saved search: Frequently used search terms and filters are now stored, so they don’t need to be reentered. Each user with access to a business account can monitor a unique list of terms.
- Reference library expansion: The reference now enables brands to monitor 200 images, up from 50 images previously.
Intellectual Property Reporting Center. If you regularly use Meta’s IP Reporting Forms, the new reporting center could save you time. New functionality stores your account information and reporting history. Multiple users logged into the same Business Manager account can access the reporting history for the entire business, making it easier for different departments to share information.
Updates to Rights Manager. Meta is adding three new features to help brands manage and protect their copyrighted content at scale. The new features include:
- Automatic blocking: Automatically block matching images.
- Image attribution: Add attribution links to matching content on Facebook (and soon on Instagram), sharing ownership details about the matched image. Rights holders can also include a call to action, allowing viewers to Follow, Email, or Message their page directly.
- Bulk actions: Perform actions on multiple image reference files at once, making it more efficient to manage your reference library.
Meta For Business Web Resources. The Meta for Business website has a new guide to assist businesses in creating a brand protection strategy and reducing the effects of brand misuse. The guide is structured into three segments – Protect, Monitor, and Resolve – offering businesses Meta’s recommended practices and product solutions for brand management.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Deep dive. Visit the Meta Help Center for more information on Brand Rights Protection and Rights Manager.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Wednesday, January 24th, 2024
PPC advertisers running Google Shopping ads typically choose a brand, margin, or category-based structure for their campaigns. These approaches are effective for broader advertising across a large inventory. Managing tens or hundreds of thousands of SKUs poses a challenge for advertisers, making it hard to focus on individual products.
Still, delving into SKU-level details is crucial to uncover hidden potential, address wasted budget, or identify specific products affecting overall category performance. To deal with product data at scale, consider implementing product scoring.
What is product scoring?
Product scoring involves assigning numerical values to products based on various performance indicators. This rating reflects a product’s potential or current market success.
Using product scoring, you can systematically choose which products to emphasize in your marketing and sales efforts, focusing on those with the strongest potential for advertising success.
For an effective product scoring system, several metrics play pivotal roles:
Sales velocity
- This parameter gauges the speed at which a product is purchased over a set duration. Products selling swiftly typically earn higher scores, signaling market appeal.
Customer insights
- Valuable insights gathered from customer reviews and ratings are indispensable.
- Products receiving positive feedback score higher, indicating their appeal to prospective buyers.
Profit margins
- Product scoring places significant emphasis on products with lucrative profit margins because they contribute more to the advertiser’s bottom line.
Conversion rates
- Measure how effectively customer interest is transformed into sales. High-scoring products are often those that achieve robust conversion rates.
Aligning with market trends and demand
- Advertisers who align their product offerings with market trends and consumer demands are likely to achieve higher product scores.
Inventory turnover
- This measures a product’s sales and restocking cycle. Products that are consistently in demand and quickly restocked tend to score higher, indicating sustained market desire.
In addition, any product scoring model can be extended with numerous metrics, such as:
- Add to cart.
- Pricing info like average price or price competitiveness
- Bookmarked products.
- Preorder ratio.
This additional information might help in fine-tuning the scoring model.
Dig deeper: Margin-based tracking: 3 advanced strategies for Google Shopping profitability
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Integrating product scoring into your marketing strategy: A step-by-step guide
Incorporating product scoring into your marketing strategy is a step toward more precise and effective Shopping campaigns.
Below are the essential steps and considerations to add product scoring into your marketing activities.
Step 1: Establish your product scoring criteria
Identify key metrics
- Identify the metrics from the list above that matter most for your products and market. Consider sales velocity, customer ratings, profit margins, conversion rates, market trends, and inventory turnover.
Create a scoring model
- Construct a method to assign scores to your products based on these identified metrics. This model can range from a straightforward numerical scale to a more nuanced weighted algorithm.
- A basic model could be a scoring system from 1-5; a product’s score is determined by adding the score of each metric for the product. You can implement a basic scoring system quickly, but it lacks the sophistication that can be achieved with a more advanced model.
- A more advanced model could be based on this formula:
Product Score = sales volume (share) x price competitiveness x demand x profit margins
- Advertisers should test models. Some models might lead to more accurate decision-making results depending on the data quality.
There are almost no limits to the composition of metrics that contribute to the score. The most significant challenge may be aggregating data from multiple sources so that it can be analyzed. That leads to Step 2.
Step 2: Integrate data analytics
Use diverse data sources
- Tap into varied data sources, including sales records, customer feedback, market research, and digital footprints from online interactions.
Implement analytics tools
- Deploy sophisticated analytics tools capable of processing and interpreting this data to yield precise product scores. Opt for solutions that manage a lot of data and offer real-time analysis for adaptive scoring.
- On a small scale, information could be stored in a spreadsheet, which can be developed into an enterprise resource planning (ERP) based analytics database.
- Larger enterprises may start with a cloud-based data warehouse to aggregate all its product scoring data.
- Make sure to develop the necessary connectors or have an existing setup. For example analytics or ads data can easily be integrated. In contrast, Google Trends or ERP data might need an automated process to ensure timely and accurate data.
Step 3: Apply product scoring in marketing campaigns
Prioritize top-scoring products
- Allocate your marketing investments to products with the highest scores. This might mean increased advertising budgets, strategic placement in promotional materials, or special offers.
- Create automations to remove lower-scoring products or bring products without a score into a test cycle.
Step 4: Maintain and refine product scoring
Dynamic scoring updates
- Keep your product scores fluid, allowing them to evolve with shifting market trends, consumer preferences, and incoming data.
Ongoing scoring optimization
- Continually assess and fine-tune your scoring criteria and methods to ensure they stay pertinent and yield the most beneficial outcomes.
- Also, make sure to refine your scoring model and the metrics you use.
Step 5: Monitor results and glean insights
Track campaign efficacy
- Diligently monitor the performance of campaigns that feature high-scoring products, comparing their effectiveness against other campaigns.
Extract insights for future strategies
- Use the insights gleaned from these campaigns to inform and shape your future marketing strategies and product development decisions.
Challenges in implementing product scoring
Implementing product scoring involves navigating various challenges and adhering to best practices for maximum effectiveness.
The biggest challenge is likely data collection and management. As data accumulates, new tools and additional storage may be required.
Selecting the product scoring metrics you capture and store should be well thought out. Adding a new data source to the model means you’ll be losing historical context.
The product scoring must be aligned and updated frequently and reliably to supply quality data for marketing. This approach can only work if the data is correct.
Leverage product scoring for more effective campaigns
While developing and integrating a scoring system takes concerted effort, the rewards make it worthwhile. Product scoring provides a compass to guide your marketing dollars, advertising campaigns, and product development.
Balancing the focus between high and low scorers is important. While it’s essential to prioritize high-scoring products, lower-scoring products should not be completely overlooked, as targeted efforts can sometimes turn these products around.
Leveraging technology and automation for data processing and scoring reduces human error and increases efficiency.
Dig deeper: Google Merchant Center: Using product data to boost your retail efforts
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024
Google confirmed a search ranking bug, a “very narrow issue,” as Google called it, that affected a “small number of websites” where those rankings would drop out of the Google Search results over the weekend and then reappear during the weekdays.
Google’s statement. A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land this issue has already been resolved and that it only impacted a “small number of websites.” Google wrote:
We’re aware of a very narrow issue that caused temporary fluctuations in search results for a small number of websites. The issue has since been resolved, and the sites should no longer be seeing its effects.
The issue. The issue seemed to have impacted sites that were on exotic vanity top-level domains (TLDs). Affected TLDs ended in .club, .consulting, .life and other non-standard TLDs. Some sites noticed that they completely stopped ranking over the weekends. Initially, I thought it was either a quality issue, being on the edge of quality, or a bug with Google Search. But it turned out it was a bug with Google Search.
The first person I saw cover this was Tomasz Rudzki at ZipTie. In short, he wrote, “On weekends, something strange kept happening – the website would completely lose rankings and traffic. People couldn’t even find it when they searched for it by its name.”
What was interesting is that those ranking issues coincided with several unconfirmed Google updates that happened over the weekend. He said, “9 out of 9 examples were non-standard TLDs, such as, .consultancy (example.consultancy), .care (example.care), .club, .info, .energy.” The dates he shared coincided with the algorithm updates I reported on. He said these were the dates:
Sample ranking chart. Here is one example of a ranking chart showing the weekend drop in performance from organic Google Search:
Why we care. This issue seems to have been going on since November 2023. Nearly three months later, after these reports, Google resolved the issue.
If you noticed weird ranking issues over the weekends and you are on one of these non-standard TLDs, then maybe this impacted you. I did notice these Google weekend search ranking updates stopped over the past week or so.
Hopefully, you won’t see this going forward.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024
Google changed how it counts clicks and impressions for job listing and detail pages within the Search Console performance reports. You may notice an increase in clicks and impressions when filtering by job listings and detail pages, but that is only because Google evaluates these data points differently than it did in the past. The change in reporting started on January 9, 2024.
No changes to Google Search. Google did not changed how or where job listings and detail pages show within Google Search. Instead this was just a reporting change in Google Search Console.
What Google said. Google posted about this update here, saying:
Search Console has changed the way it evaluates and counts impressions and clicks for job listing and detail pages. As a result, you may see an increase in clicks and impressions for your job pages. This increase doesn’t reflect actual growth, but rather that Search Console is more accurately reporting the number of impressions and clicks across the various job experiences in Search.
How these metrics work. Google posted more details on this within its help documentation. You can read them over here.
Why we care. If you notice an increase in impression and click data for job listing and detail pages, this is why. Record the date of this reporting change. Nothing you or Google Search may have done was responsible for the fluctuations in impressions or clicks.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024
PPC offers great opportunities for companies of all sizes to reach new customers. However, enterprises and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face very different challenges when it comes to developing and optimizing campaigns.
Smaller budgets, limited data and an emphasis on quick ROI mean that SMBs can’t simply replicate the strategies of big brands. Instead, they need a tailored approach to make every dollar count.
This article outlines the key differences between enterprises and SMBs when it comes to PPC and specific optimization tactics for maximizing ad spend.
Enterprises vs. SMBs: Differences in PPC strategy
Budget
One of the biggest differences between SMBs and larger organizations is the amount of money/budget available to them.
Smaller companies could have an ad spend budget of $5,000 per month, while larger companies in the same space might be able to spend $5,000 per day.
This significantly impacts marketing strategy. To deal with lower budgets, targeting should have a narrower focus to prioritize the most important audiences. Some strategies to tighten up coverage include:
Phrase and exact match keywords
Broad match keyword performance may have improved in recent years (for some advertisers), but they still tend to struggle in smaller accounts because of limited budgets, data and how many searches they can match.
While phrase and exact match keywords are still eligible for close variant matching, you retain much more control over the queries they match to compared to broad match.
Localized geo-targeting
Start by targeting your core service areas or a specific region. You can then test expanding your footprint more intentionally once those campaigns run efficiently or if more budget opens up.
- For example, you’re working with a local ice cream store that can ship anywhere in the U.S. Targeting the entire country would likely eat up the budget without significantly impacting their sales.
- Instead, I’d recommend targeting a 25-mile radius around the store so that they saturate the search engine results page for any searches related to ice cream in their area. From there, they can expand into neighboring counties and work their way up to the rest of the state, region, etc.
Local and/or long-tail keywords
Longer, more specific keywords will help eliminate some of the extra noise that comes with query matching. Combine this with phrase or exact match types and tighter geo-targeting, and you get a nicely refined audience that maximizes your budget.
- For example, targeting “ice cream” is very open-ended and would likely result in wasted spend. However, [ice cream store near me] makes it much clearer what the user’s intent is and would be highly relevant to a local shop.
Small to medium-sized B2B companies are another important segment to highlight. These businesses often deal with search terms that overlap with a larger, unrelated audience, and they can benefit greatly from longer-tail keywords.
- For example, an ingredient supplier that wants to sell their products to corporations like Coca-Cola, not an individual consumer. Targeting something like “bulk sweetener” may result in traffic from people looking to buy for their own kitchen or office. Instead, I’d recommend targeting more specific terms like “wholesale stevia supplier” and “commercial grade sweetener distributors”.
Dig deeper: 2024 PPC budgeting: How to plan and secure your ideal budget
Volume
Another difference is that many SMBs deal with lower volume than large companies. This could be due to various factors, such as lower budgets, smaller service areas, longer sales cycles, or offering more niche products/services.
One major problem with having low volume is that it makes it more difficult for automation to work in the account’s favor. At the very least, it will take more time for data to be collected and the systems to learn, but not every business is willing or able to wait for something that might eventually work for them.
- For example, a construction company with a limited budget and long sales cycle gets an average of 5 leads per month from Google Ads campaigns. However, the more data you collect, the faster the ad platform’s algorithm will learn and the better your campaigns will perform. Because this company doesn’t receive much data each month, they may struggle to see results if they start with a Maximize Conversions bidding strategy.
- Another example is Target CPA bidding. Historically, Google Ads has recommended testing this strategy with a daily budget 10x higher than your CPA. SMBs with a tCPA of $50 likely aren’t able to set one campaign to spend $500/day.
Manual bidding strategies are a great starting point to combat lower volume. This allows you to retain more control while data is collected instead of handing over the reins to companies incentivized to spend your money.
That’s not to say that automation can’t help smaller accounts – it’s just important to know what the system needs to be successful. Feeding higher-quality data will allow the algorithms to learn best, such as offline conversions and CRM imports.
Emphasis on ROI
Lastly, SMBs want to see a return on their investment quickly and can’t afford to wait a long time to start seeing leads, sales, etc. As a result, focus on capturing existing demand first.
Search and Remarketing will likely be most impactful to start, as these users have much higher intent to convert than those who would be targeted in a top-funnel awareness campaign.
You should also make sure that all conversion tracking is reliable and accurate to clearly determine what is or isn’t successful.
Dig deeper: Setting PPC goals: How to tailor KPIs and metrics for each funnel stage
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
PPC optimization tactics for SMBs
When you’re dealing with lower budgets and volume with an emphasis on ROI, I recommend prioritizing refinements before expansion.
We all want to grow and scale our accounts, but it’s important to first make the most of the existing budget. This ensures you’re reaching the most relevant audience possible, setting up any future expansion efforts for success.
Below are optimization tactics focused on refining spend and improving audience/traffic quality:
Review the Search terms and Placement reports regularly
- Do this at least once a month to identify and prevent irrelevant traffic.
- Adding negative keywords is crucial for any Search campaign, especially for SMBs.
- If the account runs on Display or Video Networks, consider excluding mobile apps, children’s YouTube channels and other spammy sites/channels/etc.
Avoid unnecessary networks to ensure ads appear where you want them
- For Search campaigns, opt out of the Google Display Network and consider opting out of Google Search Partners.
- While Microsoft Advertising no longer allows advertisers to opt out of the Audience Network for Search campaigns, you can still exclude websites at the campaign and account level.
- For social campaigns, consider opting out of the platforms’ external networks, such as the LinkedIn Audience Network for LinkedIn campaigns.
Test bid modifications, ad schedules and exclusions based on performance analyses
- For example, you reviewed your Google Ads day and device data and found that 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. on weekends, and tablet devices all have a CPA at least 5x higher than the account average. From there, you can test a -25% bid modification from 12 a.m. to 4 a.m., -10% bid modification for tablets, and only run campaigns on weekdays.
- You then conducted location and audience analyses and found that current college students and people in Montana never converted. To limit spend on these non-converting segments, you can exclude current college students and test a -50% bid modification in Montana.
- On LinkedIn, you compared the Demographics Report to your actual campaign targeting and found that 80% of your impressions came from people with a job function in Sales (even though this is outside your target audience). You can then exclude the Sales function from all campaigns.
Make sure the website is optimized for conversions
- Lastly, if you’re running campaigns for an SMB, the website must be ready for traffic to come through.
- If you direct people to a page that has minimal information, no conversion tracking, poor speed and/or design, etc., your PPC campaigns will not be set up for success.
- The strategies and refinement tactics above will matter significantly less if landing pages are not optimized.
Dig deeper: 5 tips for effective PPC bidding on a budget
Making every PPC dollar count for SMBs
Small and medium-sized businesses face different problems compared to companies that have 1,000+ employees and significantly more revenue. PPC is no exception, with many SMBs facing the reality of having a limited budget, less data and greater pressure for results.
Paid media can also be intimidating for smaller organizations when they see big brand names competing in the same space. However, it can quickly become a key component of the marketing mix by implementing tighter targeting, maximizing control over ad spend, implementing robust and accurate conversion tracking, and testing ongoing refinements.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024
Google is trialing a new local search box called Nearby Events and Deals.
The new SERP feature, which is only visible for local searches on mobile devices, displays Google Business Profile (GBP) posts promoting deals and events from nearby businesses.
Why we care. This feature offers a chance for local businesses to boost conversions. To make the most of it, you should regularly post and optimize content on your Google My Business (GMB) profile to increase the likelihood of your brand’s events and deals ranking higher.
How it works. The Nearby Events and Deals feature was first spotted by Saad Alikhan who shared a preview on X:
The feature displays four tiles, complete with the company name, a promotional photo and a review rating.
If you select one of the tiles, Google will take you to a full-screen view of the offer in more detail. Here, you’ll find the name of the business, where it is situated on a map, an image of the promotion and some text. However, the feature has not yet been spotted on Google maps.
Competitive. Notably, the four pack does not appear to have a “show more” option, meaning that visibility via this feature is very limited.
Placement. Observers noted that the new Nearby Events and Deals feature is typically located further down the SERP, under the local pack, organic results, “People also ask” and “People also search for” sections.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Deep dive. Read our How to follow Google Business Profile guidelines deep dive for more information on optimizing your account.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Friday, January 19th, 2024
Google Ads now provides a new “Getting Started” Performance Max guide, assisting advertisers with step-by-step instructions for building more effective campaigns.
Additionally, the platform has updated various other guides to enhance the overall experience of creating, managing, and reporting on PMax campaigns using the Google Ads API, including:
- Asset Requirements.
- PMax reporting guide.
- Campaign-level conversion goals.
- Asset group signals.
- Troubleshooting.
Why we care. The updated documentation gives advertisers extra help and guidance, making it easier for them to understand how to optimize, manage, and report on campaigns more effectively.
Getting Started. The Getting Started new guide offers a checklist of concepts and tasks tailored to each of the three Performance Max campaign types:
- Standard Performance Max campaigns
- Performance Max campaigns for retail
- Performance Max campaigns for travel goals
Asset Requirements. This guide outlines the asset requirements for each AssetGroup within a PMax campaign to achieve optimal campaign performance.
PMax reporting guide. This guide outlines the options for reporting on PMax campaigns organized by objective.
Campaign-level conversion goals. Guidance for setting campaign conversion goals for a PMax campaign.
Asset group signals. This information explains the concept of AssetGroupSignal, a signal used to optimize ad serving at the asset group level in PMax.
Troubleshooting. This guide provides troubleshooting steps for addressing issues with your Performance Max campaign if it is not performing as expected. It covers potential problems related to ads, bidding, targeting, conversion tracking, or campaign settings.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Deep dive. Read Google’s announcement in full for more information.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Friday, January 19th, 2024
LinkedIn has introduced sponsored articles, providing marketers with an additional tool that may contribute to enhancing brand awareness, increasing engagement, and driving lead generation.
Why we care. As LinkedIn users will not have the hassle or inconvenience of having to leave the platform to read the sponsored content, this could result in higher engagement.
How it works. When a company account publishes an article on LinkedIn, admins now have the option to promote it. This promotion allows the addition of a CTA button, like “Unlock Article,” encouraging users to sign up to access the complete content. While this feature resembles LinkedIn lead generation ads, its direct connection to in-app engagement is advantageous for LinkedIn and potentially beneficial for businesses
Accessibility. Currently, only articles authored by companies are eligible for sponsorship. However, the LinkedIn product team is actively working on developing numerous additional functionalities, which are expected to be rolled out shortly.
Roll out. Sponsored posts has been rolled out to the majority of business accounts already, however, some brands may not have access to this feature just yet.
What LinkedIn is saying. Baptiste Beauvisage, Lead Client Solutions Manager at LinkedIn, stressed the benefits of this new product to advertisers and brands in a statement:
- “You can use the content you already have on your Linkedin page.”
- “Sponsored posts are more viral than a blog article hosted externally.”
- “You can have all the comments from logged-in members on the article directly.”
- “There is a better UX.”
- “You can drive leads without sending users off Linkedin to consult your article.”
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Deep dive. Read our article on surging LinkedIn ad prices for more information on why the platform has become so popular amongst advertisers.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Friday, January 19th, 2024
404 page errors can frustrate users and cause them to leave your site.
However, with some foresight, these errors can become an opportunity to provide help and encourage users to explore more of your website.
This article covers best practices for crafting 404 pages, with real examples from over 50 brands. You’ll also find answers to frequently asked questions about 404 error pages.
What is a 404 page?
A 404 page, also known as an error page, is a webpage displayed when a user tries to access a URL that no longer exists.
Status code 404 error meaning
The 404 status code error is an HTTP response signaling the webpage cannot be found on the web server. It tells the browser that the requested webpage is “not found.”
404 page best practices
Creating a useful 404 error page is vital for providing a good user experience when visitors visit your website.
Here are some best design practices for crafting a user-friendly and engaging 404 page.
- Clear error message: Ensure the 404 error message is displayed and clearly states that the requested page cannot be found. Use friendly and simple language to explain the error.
- Engaging visuals: Incorporate visually appealing graphics or illustrations that align with your website’s design and brand. These visuals can help soften the frustration of encountering an error.
- Navigation options: Provide easy-to-find navigation elements that guide users back to your website’s homepage, main content, or relevant sections. Include links or buttons that make it simple for users to continue their journey.
- Search functionality: Include a search bar allowing users to look for the content they originally sought.
- Contact information: Include contact information or a link to your support/help center for users needing assistance with their specific issue.
Following these design practices can turn a frustrating error into a positive user experience and keep visitors engaged with your website, even when they encounter 404 pages.
51 examples of 404 pages
Funny 404 page examples
Here are examples of lighthearted, humorous, quirky 404 pages that use witty and clever language to draw users in and keep them on the page.
1. Marvel
2. PitVipers
3. Southwest
4. Chubbies
5. Taco Bell
6. Progressive Insurance
7. RyanAir
8. Lego
9. Wendy’s
10. Moosejaw
11. M&M’s
12. Dollar Shave Club
13. Blizzard
Formal 404 page examples
Here are examples of formal 404 pages designed to look more professional and take a respectful tone in the copy.
14. Medium
15. Delta
16. The New York Times
17. Ford
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
SaaS 404 page examples
Here are examples of SaaS 404 pages that align with users’ specific needs and expectations when visiting a SaaS platform. You’ll notice a clean, minimalistic design with a user-centric focus.
18. Sprout Social
19. Mural
20. Intercom
21. Help Scout
22. Mailchimp
23. Asana
24. Uber
25. Packlane
26. Drift
27. Spotify
28. Flywheel
29. ClickUp
30. PayPal
31. Headspace
32. Zoom
33. Salesforce
34. Smashing Magazine
Ecommerce 404 page examples
Here are examples of ecommerce 404 pages that offer search functionality, category navigation, cart preservation, and even customer reviews.
35. Crocs
36. Ugg
37. Mrs. Meyers
38. Garmin
39. Charmin
40. Patagonia
41. Yeti
42. Barstool Sports
43. Method
44. Xbox
45. Cards Against Humanity
Bad 404 page examples
Here are examples of bad 404 pages that result in a lack of clarity, no guidance, and a generic error message.
46. Wired
47. Nordstrom
48. Reliaquest
49. QuickBooks
50. Today
51. Target
FAQs about 404 pages
How do I find a 404 page on my website?
There are a few different ways to find a 404 page on your website:
- Type in a non-existent URL. For example, www.yourwebsite.com/taco
- Click on a broken link
- Search for non-existent content in your website’s search functionality
How do I edit a 404 page in WordPress?
Editing your 404 page in WordPress can vary depending on how your WordPress is set up.
You can do this in your page builder or a plugin.
My personal preference is to make changes in the theme customizer under “Appearance.” Then, click on “customize.” You should find your 404 page.
Does Google remove 404 pages?
Google does not remove 404 pages. I actually see quite a lot of 404 pages indexed.
Over time, if Google stumbles across the 404 page repeatedly, it will eventually remove those pages from the index.
If the 404 page is restored, Google will reindex the page.
Building better 404 pages
Well-designed error pages promote a smooth user experience, even when someone lands on a missing page.
By following the tips outlined here, you can create 404 pages that transform confusing dead-ends into convenient gateways for navigation, search functionality, contact information, and more.
Dig deeper: Pro Tip: How to find and fix 404 errors that really matter to win your traffic back
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
