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Making a custom 404 error page for a website is very easy to do and can take less than 3 minutes to make. For those who don’t know what a 404 page is, it’s just a simple page letting the user know that the page they are trying to visit is unavailable. It’s very important for a blog to have a 404 page so that just in case your readers visit a page that doesn’t exit, they’ll be able to go to where they’re suppose with an automated page. Here’s a simple way to get started.

First, make your 404 page. It is a working HTML page that can be made even without any styles. You can even make i with Notepad (PC) or Textedit (Mac). Take a look at this simple one I’ve made for this site. It’s just a simple file, but it shows the user that the page is not available. Name this file “missing.html”. A very good thing to do is to add a link to the main page as you can see here.

There is one more thing to do to complete the whole process. Usually all that’s left to do is upload the “missing.html” file to your server’s root directory. To test if it works, go in your web browser and type a page that doesn’t exist in your website (ex. www.SlyVisions.com/asdfjakhsfklah). If it works, you’ll see the 404 page you’ve just made. If not, here’s the last thing you have to do. First, make sure you have access to your server’s “.htaccess” file. Open this up and input the following text code. Just replace the website with the location of your 404 page.

ErrorDocument 404 http://www.yoursite.com/custom_page.html

Save the “.htaccess” file and you’re all set. Next time someone tries to visit a non-existing page on your website, they’ll be given taken to that 404 page you have just made. Remember, you can always style the error page to however you like. You can even make it have the same style template as your regular site. Take a look below at the 404 page for ProBlogger for example. It’s really all up to you. That’s why it’s custom right?

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