How To Setup a 404 File Not Found Page For Your Blog
Posted by Mert Erkal on May 15, 2008 in Blog | 15 comments
Probably you faced with a 404 – file not found error while surfing the Web before. There are many possible reasons to that, but mostly you get that error message because of mistyping the URL or the page has been moved/deleted but the link URL has not been updated/deleted.
Have you ever thought how many visitors of you face with Error 404 problem in a month?
I have done a study to calculate this. Thanks to my hosting company Voda Host, I used their statistics to check how many Error 404 happening in a month.
According to their statistics each and every month there are in average 200 Error 404 problems occuring related to my blog.
Assuming that I will get the same number of visitors for the full year, this makes 2400 errors in a year! If my visitors increase each month, the errors will also increase.
What Have I Done So Far To Prevent This?
Until this week, when my blog’s visitors face with a Error 404 – Page Not Found problem, I welcomed them with a boring “Page Not Found” message.
So guess what happened?
I lost the chance of welcoming them with my best blog posts, giving them an option to search what they are looking for, and invite them to subscribe to my RSS feeds for the future.
What a disaster!
Finally I Customized My Error 404 Page
Long time ago I decided to customize my Error 404 page. Finally I allocated a few hours to customize it within this week. You can check it below (I mistyped the URL consciously):
http://www.searchforblogging.com/indexx
Feel free to use the same wording and layout for your own customized Error 404 page.
How Can You Customize Your Error 404 Page?
Let’s go step by step:
- Create a customized Error 404 message, you can copy mine and update it with your own details
- Highlight your best blog posts and RSS feed in your message
- Login to WordPress
- Go to Presentation (WordPress 2.5+ users, go to Design)
- Click on Theme Editor
- Find 404 Template link on the right, and click on it
- Find your default Error 404 message, and replace it with your customized message
- Put <p> </p> between paragraphs if you want some space
- Click on Update File (at the bottom)
- That’s it!
I strongly suggest you to check your customized message and see how it looks on your screen immediately. You will spend 45 minutes, yet the positive impact will last longer.
I’ve customized my 404 page a time ago! I also included the categories by month, year and even the pages on my site.. Just to make sure that everybody finds what they were looking for!
Great post! Thanks for letting those of us who don’t know how to do this.
Best,
Christine Bean
Hi, i really like your site layout. I will continue reading here, so i subscribed! Maybe you could check out my site, and even subscribe if you like. Thanks, Zach.
Good not to let your visitors reach just an empty page, it’s a good idea to guide them to another interesting pages on your blog if they mistyped the URL or didn’t find the page they are looking for.
Thanks Mert for highlighting this issue!
This is a terrific idea! I especially loved the humor you put into your text. I never even knew you could benefit from having this. Thank you!
Thanks for that post Mert because I really didn’t know how to do that. Some of us who are are yet to become tech savvy find such posts helpful. Will get to work on my blogs this weekend and profit from your wisdom
Hi Mert,
I have been procrastinate to do this for a long time.
Thanks for kicking my butt. Ouch!
Along with some of the things you suggested, one thing I’ve done for my 404 page is to add a Feedburner email sign up box.
Thanks Mert. I’ve been saying I will get around to customizing but never have. I’ve bookmarked this post so it will come in handy.
Hi Mert, I’ve been meaning to do this so thanks very much for the reminder!
Mert,
Great post and yet another wonderful way to market your blog using an error page!
It jumps up regularly. Why not let users benefit from it and get back on track, and help yourself, too. Brilliant!
Sherri
Great job Mert (I keep wanting to say “Matt” instead of Mert.
I’ve been wondering how to do something like this and here it is!
I’ve done them for my websites and through C-Panel. Thanks for the post. I would not have thought to do it in WP directly. Kewl!
Hi Mert,
Thank you for yet another very helpful and actionable post. There are a heck of a lot of people out there who do not know this info. Very helpful for all.
Keep up the great work!
Onward & Upwards!
Sam Knoll
Ask Sam Knoll about SEO
@ Kathy/Sam : I am glad that you find it useful. Great!