There exists an abundant supply of articles on the internet aimed at making 404 error pages more helpful and informative. They often suggest web designers include a search field, common links, and generally avoid being too convoluted or too technical in nature. All excellent tips that promote usability and accessibility.

Frankly, I could care less about reading an error page. I’ll go look elsewhere. I don’t need suggestive links. Give me access to your navigation system and I’m good. I’d rather just fall back on Google or another place for the content. Internal site searches often produce irrelevant content or poorly presented information. In any case, I don’t like using internal searches and can’t remember the last time I’ve had to rely on them (or better yet, the last time they produced anything remotely close to what I was looking for).

Furthermore, the only sure fire way to avoid the problems those pages often cause visitors is to monitor crawl stats, either through your server or through Google Web Master Tools. If you see 404s, clean them up by fixing the code (if you broke something), or simply by adding permanent (301) redirects to your .htaccess file. Packing an error page with links or miscellany is a waste of time in my opinion. It’s a bandaid, not a cure. Fix the problem and you’ll likely never need one (provided it’s not a 403 or a 500).

So I decided I would take a different approach and pack my error pages with wisdom instead of the usual drivel.

404: Not Found

Cannot find your file
As the reed bends in strong winds
Be resilient

403: Forbidden

You may not enter
The sea is without mercy
Respect is divine

500: Internal Server Error

Something went awry
Be wary of vanity
Practice modesty