After Deploy, Check Pages That Do Not Exist: 404 Is Not the Enemy

A newly live site is usually checked on the home page only. Also open an address that truly does not exist — add /random-page to the end of your public URL. If you get a blank page or a raw server error, lost visitors have no way home.

Many Clincoo projects can use a 404.html file at the site root. It does not need to be fancy: one sentence that the page was not found, plus a clear link to home. Match your site’s look so it feels like family, not a spare page.

After adding the 404, redeploy and test a bad URL again. Also make sure internal links do not point at files you already renamed. A kind 404 does not replace correct links; it is only a net when someone gets lost.

Treat this as part of deploy, not a later chore. A small site that helps people back to home feels more ready than a large site that goes silent on a wrong URL.