What Should You Put on a 404 Page?

Put three things on a 404 page: a clear statement that the page can't be found, your site's normal navigation, and a link back to your home page (or your most useful content). That's Google's own advice, not a stylistic preference. Its documentation is equally specific about what a 404 page must do behind the scenes: it has to actually return a 404 HTTP status code, or you risk the page being flagged as a "soft 404" and excluded from Search anyway, custom design or not.

This isn't a list of clever 404 pages from other companies — that's a design mood board, not something you can act on. This is what Google documents about 404 behavior, and what Squarespace, Wix, and Webflow each document for building a custom one, so you can actually go set it up.

What does Google say a soft 404 error is?

Per Google's Troubleshoot Google Search Crawling Errors documentation (checked September 2026): "A soft 404 error is when a URL that returns a page telling the user that the page does not exist and also a 200 (success) status code. In some cases, it might be a page with no main content or empty page."

In plain terms: the page's content says "not found," but the server still tells search engines "success" — a mismatch. Google lists real causes for that mismatch beyond just a badly built 404 page: a missing server-side include file, a broken database connection, an empty internal search-result page, or a JavaScript file that failed to load, any of which can leave a page rendering as empty or error-like even when the server thinks it served a normal 200.

Google explains why this matters: "It's a bad user experience to return a 200 (success) status code, but then display or suggest an error message or some kind of error on the page. Users may think the page is a live working page, but then are presented with some kind of error. Such pages are excluded from Search." When Google's systems catch this pattern, it shows up specifically as a soft 404 in Search Console's Page Indexing report.

What does Google recommend putting on a custom 404 page?

Straight from the same documentation, Google's tips for "designing a useful custom 404 page":

• Tell visitors clearly that the page they're looking for can't be found.
• Use language that's friendly and inviting.
• Give the 404 page the same look and feel — including navigation — as the rest of the site.
• Consider linking to your most popular content, plus a link to the home page.
• Consider giving users a way to report a broken link.

That's the whole list. No mention of humor, animation, or brand personality — those are choices a builder or designer can layer on top, not something Google's documentation asks for.

Does a custom 404 page need to return an actual 404 status code?

Yes, and Google is direct about why: "Custom 404 pages are created solely for users. Since these pages are useless from a search engine's perspective, make sure the server returns a 404 HTTP status code to prevent having the pages indexed." A nicely designed error page that quietly returns 200 is exactly the soft-404 problem described above — the design doesn't fix the underlying status-code mismatch.

What if the page moved instead of disappearing?

Don't 404 it — Google's guidance is to redirect: "If your page has moved or has a clear replacement on your site, return a 301 (permanent redirect) to redirect the user. This won't interrupt their browsing experience and it's also a great way to tell search engines about the new location of the page." Google also suggests using the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to confirm the URL is actually returning the status code you think it is, rather than assuming your redirect rule is working. If you're moving pages across a whole site migration rather than fixing one broken link, our guide to redirects when changing website builders covers building the full URL map.

And if a page you didn't intend to remove gets flagged as a soft 404 anyway, Google's own diagnosis path is: "it's likely it didn't load properly for Googlebot, it was missing critical resources, or it displayed a prominent error message during rendering" — check it with the URL Inspection tool before assuming the page itself is the problem.

How do I set up a custom 404 page on Squarespace?

Per Squarespace's help center (checked September 2026): open the Pages panel, scroll to the bottom, click System Pages, then click 404 Page. By default, Squarespace's System Default page "lets visitors know why the content may not be appearing, and includes links to your site's homepage and search page."

To build your own: create a new page and place it in the Not Linked section of your Pages panel, then go back to the 404 Page setting and select that page from the dropdown. Squarespace's own advice for what to put on it: "include an error message, alerting visitors the page they're looking for can't be found," plus optionally "links to your homepage and search page, like on the default 404 page." One documented limit: "Dropdowns and index pages can't be used as 404 pages."

Squarespace also addresses the soft-404 issue directly, and it's worth quoting in full because it removes guesswork: "If you build a custom 404 page, you might see a 'Soft 404' alert when you verify your site with Google Search console. This doesn't mean there's an issue with your site or its visibility to search engines. Google flags these pages because they see a contradiction: an indexable page that says it doesn't exist." Squarespace's stated fixes are to use the System default 404 page, or to apply no-index tags to hide the custom 404 page from search engines.

How do I set up a custom 404 page on Wix?

Per Wix's help center (checked September 2026, Wix Editor): "To customize your 404 error page, you need to have a premium plan." The steps: click Pages & Menu, click Add Menu Item, click New Page, click (404) Error Page, then choose and add a page template.

Wix's own customization suggestions: "Change the text to match the voice and tone of your site," "Add a site menu," and "Add links to popular sections of your site that your visitors might be looking for." One quirk worth knowing before you publish: "You can change the page title for your browser tab from Page Settings, but the page URL always contains 'error404'."

To test it, Wix's documented method is the same simple check every platform recommends: "Go to the URL of one of your site's pages, then add some extra numbers or letters to the URL and try opening it."

How do I set up a custom 404 page on Webflow?

Per Webflow's help center (checked September 2026): "The 404 page is located under the Utility Pages section of the Pages panel." Webflow's glossary defines Utility pages as "the default, customizable templates Webflow provides for your site's 404 page, Password page, and Search results page" — they come built in rather than starting from a blank page.

Webflow states one real limitation: "you can't add Collection lists to 404 pages. This is because 404 pages should be available even if the CMS or other Webflow capabilities are down." So your 404 page has to be self-contained static content, not dynamic content pulled from your CMS.

Webflow's own pro tip matches Google's guidance closely: "It's a good practice to point users back to the homepage or provide a navigation menu on the 404 page." To test it, Webflow suggests opening a new browser tab and entering a URL on your site that does not exist, such as your-site.webflow.io/does-not-exist. And Webflow ties the redirect case back to the same page: "When you delete or change the URL of a webpage, you should set a 301 redirect to redirect visitors from the old URL to the new one. This will prevent site visitors from landing on a 404 page."

A quick checklist

• The 404 page states plainly that the page can't be found, in plain, friendly language.
• It keeps your site's normal navigation and a link to the home page.
• It's built as a real utility/system page on your platform, not a page you're relying on visitors to stumble into via a broken link.
• It doesn't rely on dynamic/CMS content that could be down when the rest of the CMS is down.
• The server actually returns a 404 status code for it — verify with Search Console's URL Inspection tool, not just by looking at the page visually.
• Any page you deleted or moved gets a 301 redirect instead of being left to 404, if a reasonable destination exists.
• You've tested it by visiting a URL on your own site that doesn't exist.

A 404 page is one line item on a larger pre-launch or ongoing audit. Our website audit checklist covers the rest — indexing, sitemaps, broken links, speed, and more — with the free official tool for each check.

The bottom line

Google's own documentation reduces what a 404 page should do to two layers: return a real 404 status code so search engines treat the page correctly, and give the human visitor a clear message plus a way back into the site. Squarespace, Wix, and Webflow each build a default page that already does the status-code part, then give you a documented path to customize the visible part — a Not Linked page and a dropdown on Squarespace, a premium-gated page type on Wix, a Utility Page with no CMS content on Webflow. Follow your platform's own steps, keep Google's short list of what to say on it, and test the result by visiting a URL that doesn't exist.