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404 pages: a field note from a hardware store
27 Feb 2026
How a hardware store deals with 404 pages — and what usually goes wrong.
The problem: a CAA record that blocks the new CA. This breaks 404 pages for a hardware store.
WordPress can handle 404 pages with a plugin. But the plugin adds JavaScript, a dashboard, and a support ticket when it conflicts with the next update. We wrote four lines of config instead.
Before you touch 404 pages, take a screenshot of the current state. Half of our emergency calls come from people who cannot remember what was there before the change.
Nobody at a hardware store could remember who had configured 404 pages. The credentials were in a text file inside a folder called OLD STUFF on a shared drive.
We billed a hardware store two hours for 404 pages. The previous agency billed forty hours and left a CAA record that blocks the new CA behind. Complexity is not expertise.
A form that collects data for a hardware store should say where the message goes. Nine fields and a captcha on a quiet Tuesday will cost you the person who actually wanted to pay.
If you only touch 404 pages once a year, a dashboard is extra risk. Files, a mailbox you read, and a person who still answers will outlast any SaaS control panel.
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