Error states

The three that matter

A form that fails to send, a page that does not exist, and a search returning nothing. Those three account for almost every error a visitor to a small business site encounters, and most sites handle none of them well.

Each one reaches somebody who was actively trying to do something, which is the most expensive moment to lose them. They had intent, and the site failed to meet it.

So the standard is not politeness. It is whether the page gives them a way to continue rather than a full stop with an apology attached.

Say what happened, in words

Something went wrong is the worst message in common use. It names no cause, suggests no action, and blames nobody, which leaves the visitor with nothing to do except leave.

Say which thing failed and whether it was theirs to fix. A mistyped address and a server problem need different messages, and treating them alike is why so many error messages are useless.

Our page on error messages covers the form case in detail, including why colour alone cannot carry the meaning.

Always offer a route onward

An error page with no links is a dead end, and a dead end is where a visit ends. Offer the main sections, the contact route and whatever they were most likely looking for.

For a missing page, guessing well is worth the effort. Our page on missing pages covers turning the commonest error into a recovery rather than an exit.

For a failed form, the route onward is a phone number. Somebody whose enquiry did not send should not have to find another way to reach you.

What every error state needs

The list below applies to all three cases. A page carrying these turns a failure into an inconvenience, which is the most that can be asked of it.

None of it is difficult and all of it is skipped, because error pages get built last and tested never. Writing them properly takes an afternoon and produces something genuinely useful at the worst moment a visitor has on your site.

• What happened, in plain words
• Whether it is something they can fix
• Exactly what to do next
• A route onward, never a dead end
• An alternative way to reach you
• Nothing lost that they had already typed
• A note that the problem is recorded

Never lose their work

A form that clears itself on failure adds insult to the original problem, and it is the single most common way a recoverable error becomes a lost customer.

The same applies to a failed submission where the message was long. Somebody who wrote four paragraphs describing a job will not write them twice.

Preserve what they entered and say so on the error page, because a visitor who can see their words are still there behaves completely differently from one staring at empty fields.

Know when it happens

Errors that nobody is told about persist. A form that has been failing for three weeks looks exactly like a form nobody is using, which is why this failure lasts so long.

Check the contact route regularly by submitting it yourself. Our page on contact forms covers why a record inside the platform matters as well as an email.

And look at what visitors hit. Our page on broken links covers finding the missing pages people are actually reaching, which is a shorter list than the total.

Tone, when something is wrong

Plain and brief. A visitor whose enquiry just failed does not want humour, and an apologetic paragraph delays the information they need.

Take responsibility where it is yours. Our system could not send that is honest; an error occurred is evasive in a way people notice even when they could not articulate it.

Our page on tone of voice covers the deliberate exceptions. Error states are the clearest case where the usual voice should step back.

Keep the wording short enough to read at a glance. Somebody who has just lost their place wants one sentence about what happened and one about what to do, and every extra line pushes those further apart.