Your Error Pages
A working 404 and 500 from the start, customisable when you want them to match the site.
Two pages exist on every site whether you ask for them or not.
The 404 is shown when somebody opens an address that does not exist — a mistyped URL, an old link, a page you deleted. The 500 is shown if something goes wrong while serving your site.
Both work out of the box. The System Pages tab is where you make them yours.
Steps
Check what you are serving now
Each card carries a badge telling you where it stands.
Webby Default means you have not customised it and the built-in page is being served. Custom · Live means your own version is published and in use. Draft · Serving Default means you have started a custom version but not published it, so visitors are still getting the built-in one.
That middle state catches people out. A half-finished custom error page does not break anything — the default keeps serving until you publish.
Customise one
Customize creates the page and opens it in the editor, where it behaves like any other page: edit the blocks, ask for changes, publish when it is right.
A good 404 does more than apologise. It gets the visitor somewhere useful — your homepage, your main sections, a search. Somebody seeing it has already failed to find something.
Keep the 500 page simple
The 500 page has a warning on its card, and it is worth taking seriously: keep it static. Avoid forms, avoid anything that loads data, avoid anything dynamic.
The reason is in the nature of the page. It is shown when something is already going wrong, so anything on it that needs to work probably will not. A static snapshot is kept ready at all times so that this page can be served when little else can be.
Preview it
Once a custom page is published, Preview opens it. For the 404 this works by requesting an address that deliberately does not exist, which is the only honest way to see the real thing.
Revert if you want the default back
Revert to Default removes your custom page and puts the built-in one back in service. Visitors see the standard Webby error page again.
You can customise again afterwards. Reverting is not a one-way door.
Result
Both error pages are accounted for: either serving the built-in version knowingly, or serving your own.
