Missing pages
A missing page (404) shows when a visitor follows a link that leads nowhere: an old address, a typo, a deleted page, a product removed from the catalog, a deleted category or article. One layout serves all these cases: its texts, suggestions and blocks adapt to what is missing. You customize it in the editor, between the header and footer.
What do you want to do?
- Customize the missing pages
- Adapt the page to what is missing
- Start from another template
- Put the page online
- Redirect an old address
- More situations: Website: common cases
Customize the missing pages
In Themes, click a "… not found (404)" row: Page not found (404) ends the Website tab, Article not found (404) the Blog tab, Category not found (404) and Product not found (404) the E-commerce tab (shown when your site has a store). They all open the same layout, previewing the chosen case.
The "Error 404" line, the title and the explanation are regular text blocks, written in your dashboard's language: edit them like any text, they are translated for your visitors like the rest of your site. To change an element's text, select it, click it again and type right on the page: Enter or a click elsewhere saves it, Escape cancels. An emptied text goes back to the default one, translated into the visitor's language. The Elements button adds regular blocks (image, text, button) or the elements specific to these pages:
- Back to the store: the link to the home page, followed by an arrow, or as a back button.
- Search: a product search in your catalog. Its Placeholder (the grey text of the empty field) is set in the element's panel.
- Suggestions: a row of products from your catalog, or the latest blog articles when an article is missing (and always if your store only has the blog). Set its heading, its number of columns and its product cards.
Adapt the page to what is missing
In the editor bar, the Missing pages menu picks the previewed case: Page not found (404), Product not found (404), Category not found (404) or Article not found (404).
- One text per case: with Page not found (404) picked, the text of the search or the suggestions applies to every case without its own. Pick the product, category or article case to write a text for that case; left empty, it uses the page one.
- Show for: in the style of a section or a shape, the Show for group picks the cases where it appears, with everything it holds. For a title ("Product not found."), an image or a button meant for one case, place it in a shape. A block hidden for the previewed case stays see-through in the editor, and does not appear for your visitors.
Start from another template
On first opening, the page takes the structure of the original 404 page. To start from another layout:
- Click the page background: the Missing pages panel opens.
- In Templates, click Change, then pick Centered, Split, Minimal, With search or With suggestions.
- Confirm with Replace.
The sections are replaced, but the texts you typed on the elements are kept, as are those of your text blocks when the new template has the same run of titles and paragraphs. You can undo the change. Reset layout goes back to the original structure.
Publish
Click Publish layout, check the preview, then publish. Publishing requires Back to the store on desktop and mobile, for every case (page, product, category, article): an element hidden for a case with Show for does not count for that case. Until you publish, visitors see the original 404 page.
If the layout already live loses one of these elements, the editor warns you that it can leave your visitors stuck: add the missing element, marked To add in Elements, then publish again.
Keep an old address from leading to a missing page
For a deleted or renamed page that received visits, create a redirect: the visitor lands on the right page and Google transfers the ranking.