How to Customize the 404 Page for Your WordPress Site

Whereas it is very important be sure that all the hyperlinks, each inside and exterior, work accurately in your weblog, there’ll at all times be the prospect that one thing goes unsuitable, and if a hyperlink results in a web page which may’t be discovered, guests will likely be greeted by the notorious 404 error. Everybody has encountered the 404 error earlier than, however many 404 pages supply nothing greater than a generic ‘Web page Not Discovered’ message.

Most WordPress themes, in addition to these which include a base set up of WordPress, include their very own 404 error web page. The brand new Twenty Fourteen theme which comes with WordPress 3.eight and later comes with a primary 404 web page which supplies a message and a search operate, however many customers might need to customise this to supply one thing extra helpful or higher suited to the model and content material of their web sites. This information takes a have a look at customizing your 404 web page.

1 – Enhancing the 404.php File

The 404 error web page is the 404.php file which is put in by most new themes, together with all the official WordPress themes.

1. In your administrator dashboard, navigate to Look > Editor and open the 404 Template by clicking on 404.php within the sidebar to the correct.
2. To alter the message on the 404 web page, exchange the highlighted textual content with the textual content of your selection.
3. If you wish to add a number of hyperlinks to your 404 web page, you are able to do so by including them inside the highlighted space present within the screenshot under within the following format:

<a href=”Enter your hyperlink right here/”>Enter the hyperlink textual content right here</a>

Make sure that the customized textual content and hyperlinks all fall between the apostrophes, in any other case you’ll get a parse error whenever you replace the file.

2 – Importing a New 404 Error Web page

Some themes don’t include their very own 404 error pages, by which case guests will seemingly see the generic 404 web page supplied by the Net browser or internet hosting firm. Nevertheless, you must be capable of use every other 404 web page along with your present theme.

Utilizing an FTP consumer (your internet hosting firm will seemingly present a Net-based one), navigate to “/wp-content/themes/(your present theme)” and add a replica of your personal 404.php file. Alternatively, you may obtain the 404.php file from one other theme, similar to one of many preinstalled WordPress themes and replica it to this location.