What are 404 Error pages and what do they mean?

What is a 404 Error?

The 404 error is an HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) response status code which means the server could not find what the browser has requested, or simply the specific page you are trying to visit does not exist which is either due to the link being broken or dead.

Some common reasons for encountering 404 errors are:

• The page got deleted
• The page got moved
• The page never existed
• The page is temporarily unavailable

What is a 404 Error page

A 404-error page is what you see when visiting a broken or dead page on a website, website can create their own custom page for users that encounter this error such as displaying a message that “That page can’t be found” with the header, footer, and style of the website still visible so you don’t feel lost, and it stays consistent to the rest of the website’s design. This is so the 404-error page is informative and helpful to the user by telling them why the page is not found and providing them options for finding the page they are looking for.

You would think that 404-error pages are useless since they are empty and not what the user wants to see but through you error you can track how many users encounter it with what specific pages lead to that error which then can be fixed.