Set Up Your Critical Error Page

Start with the visitor experience

Before changing individual settings, think about what a visitor actually needs to know if your website is temporarily unavailable.

In most situations, they need three things:

• confirmation that they have reached the correct website;
• a simple explanation that there is a temporary problem; and
• a useful next action, such as trying again, returning to the homepage or contacting the business another way.

Identify your website or business

Use the available SOS settings to make the Critical Error Page recognisable as belonging to your website or business.

A clear business or website name helps reassure visitors that they have not accidentally been redirected somewhere else when the normal website design is unavailable.

Keep the identification concise and familiar. Where possible, use the same name visitors normally see across your website and other communications.

Choose a clear status message

The status message provides a short indication of what is happening.

Keep it calm and avoid unnecessarily alarming language.

Temporary website issue

A short message like this is usually more useful to a visitor than technical language describing a fatal PHP error.

The status message should communicate that something is temporarily unavailable without suggesting that the visitor has caused the problem.

Write your main heading

The main heading is the most prominent message on the Critical Error Page.

We’ll be right back.

A simple heading works well because it tells the visitor what they need to know without exposing technical details.

You can adapt the wording to suit the tone of your website, but we recommend keeping it short and immediately understandable.

Explain what has happened

The main visitor message can provide a little more context.

We’re experiencing a temporary technical issue and the website is currently unavailable.

This gives the visitor useful information without making assumptions about the cause of the error or how long recovery will take.

Make the Critical Error Page feel like your website

The default SOS Critical Error Page is intentionally clean, neutral and immediately usable. You can then adapt it so that visitors continue to recognise your business even when the normal website is unavailable.

Your normal WordPress theme may not be available when SOS needs to display the Critical Error Page. For that reason, SOS does not simply inherit your website’s normal styling.

Instead, SOS provides its own resilient presentation controls. These allow you to create a simpler version of your visual identity without making the emergency experience dependent on your active theme or remote design resources.

You can use SOS to control elements including:

• your logo and its size and alignment;
• a background image or repeating pattern;
• how strongly a background image is displayed;
• accent, background, text and panel colours;
• panel transparency;
• safe fallback typography;
• whether the message appears within a visible container or more freely over the background;
• the relative sizes of headings, status text, messages and contact information; and
• the visitor actions and contact routes appropriate to your business.

Add your logo

Your logo is one of the simplest ways to make the SOS experience immediately recognisable.

Choose a logo that remains clear against the background you intend to use. You can adjust its alignment and maximum width so that it works naturally with the rest of the Critical Error Page.

Avoid making the logo so large that it competes with the main status message. During a website problem, the visitor’s next action should remain the priority.

Use a background image or pattern

A background image can make the Critical Error Page feel much more closely connected to your normal brand.

SOS allows you to select an image from the WordPress Media Library and control how that image is treated within the fallback experience.

A subtle photograph, texture or repeating pattern can work particularly well.

The image-strength control lets you decide how prominently the background should appear. Reducing its strength can help preserve contrast and keep the visitor message as the main focus.

Use your brand colours

SOS allows you to choose colours for the main parts of the emergency experience.

These include the accent colour, page background, text and message panel.

You do not need to reproduce your entire website colour palette. One recognisable brand colour combined with clear neutral colours is often enough to make the page feel familiar.

Always maintain sufficient contrast between text and its background.

Shape the visual hierarchy

SOS includes typography and sizing controls so that the importance of each part of the message can be made clear.

You can adjust the relative size of:

• the main heading;
• the status label;
• the main and secondary messages;
• the contact heading; and
• the contact details.

The main heading should normally remain the strongest element, followed by the information the visitor needs to understand the situation and decide what to do next.

SOS uses safe fallback typography because the fonts normally supplied by your WordPress theme or an external font service may not be available during a fatal condition.

Choose how the message is presented

Depending on the background and visual style you choose, the visitor message may work best inside a defined panel or directly over the page background.

SOS provides container and panel controls so you can find the appropriate balance between branding and readability.

For example, a photographic background may benefit from a lightly opaque panel behind the message, while a simple neutral background may need very little visual framing.

The design should always make the message easier to understand rather than merely adding decoration.

Give visitors a useful next step

A good Critical Error Page should not leave the visitor at a dead end.

SOS can provide simple visitor actions appropriate to the emergency experience.

Try again

Try again allows the visitor to attempt the request again.

This can be useful when the underlying problem is temporary or has already been resolved.

Go to homepage

Go to homepage provides a simple route back to the main website.

If the underlying problem affects only part of the website, the homepage may still be available. If the whole website is unavailable, the visitor can still use the other continuity options you provide.

Custom actions

SOS can also provide additional actions linking visitors to useful external destinations.

Depending on the business, these might include an external booking service, customer portal, status page, shop or another service that remains available independently of the affected WordPress website.

Provide contact information where appropriate

If you provide contact information through SOS, use details that remain useful while the normal website may be unavailable.

An appropriate email address, telephone number or established external contact route can help visitors complete the reason they came to the business even while the website is experiencing a problem.

Only include contact information that you are comfortable displaying publicly.

Bring the design together

Once the individual elements are configured, look at the Critical Error Page as a complete visitor experience.

A successful SOS design should feel recognisable without becoming unnecessarily complicated.

Check that:

• your business or website can be identified immediately;
• the main message remains the strongest part of the page;
• background imagery supports rather than competes with the message;
• text remains readable against every background;
• your brand colour is used purposefully;
• buttons and contact options are easy to find; and
• the page still feels calm and useful when viewed on a smaller screen.

Learn why SOS uses a self-contained emergency experience →

Save your Critical Error Page

When you are happy with your configuration, save your SOS settings.

SOS then prepares the current visitor-facing information for use by its local resilience profile.

This means the emergency experience does not have to retrieve the normal website content at the point when WordPress is experiencing the fatal condition.

Learn about the SOS resilience profile →

Test the finished experience

Once the page has been configured and saved, preview the experience and then use the controlled fatal test provided by SOS when you are ready to validate the real fallback path.

Look at the page as a visitor rather than simply checking that individual settings have been saved.

Check:

• your business or website name and logo;
• the status message and main heading;
• the explanatory copy;
• background image or pattern;
• colours, contrast and typography;
• the presentation of the message panel;
• visitor actions;
• any contact information you have provided;
• any custom external continuity routes; and
• how the complete page behaves on desktop and mobile devices.

Learn how to test SOS safely →

What makes a good Critical Error Page?

There is no single message that is right for every website, but a good emergency experience is usually:

• Clear – visitors immediately understand that there is a temporary problem.
• Calm – the wording does not make the situation sound worse than the available evidence supports.
• Recognisable – visitors can tell they are still dealing with the correct website or business.
• Useful – the visitor has something sensible they can do next.
• Honest – the page does not promise a recovery time or explanation that the website cannot know.

In most cases, shorter is better.