Two things which might affect you: government websites tend to do well in the Google rankings, so if you're lagging behind them, you might see a traffic boost when they disappear. However, links from them are valuable, so if you've got any, you're going to need to work hard to replace them. If there's some relevant background information to your industry on a government website which is about to disappear, you might think about writing your own version and posting it on your site.

Government websites get the chop

Even if you think what you're providing is OK, it may still be worth reading 404 error pages, news sites and user experience on the E-consultancy blog, where they investigate what happens on some of the big news sites (such as the BBC or FT) to see if there's anything we can learn. One thing to remember when designing your error page (also known as the "404 page") is that visitors might have followed a broken link from another site, and therefore it's not their fault they're seeing your error page – so don't imply they're idiots who can't type.

Avoiding errors in error pages

Get more Good Stuff on your site

I'm writing this on an iMac with a huge 1,920-pixel-wide screen. You may be reading it on anything from an old 800-pixel-wide monitor (less than half the size) to something as big (or bigger) than mine. Chances are, you're somewhere in the middle. But whatever the case, never assume that what your visitors see is the same as you do, because it isn't. And I haven't even mentioned mobile devices. Your site needs to be able to cope with everything. Can it?

Don't assume we're all alike

Focus on what you want the visitor to do