How to customize your blogs 404 Error Page

Many bloggers customize and make all their pages attractive except for the 404 error page. It is important that you fill that page with information that could help your blogs visitors who reach there by mispelling your URL or for some other reason.

WordPress users can customize their blogs 404 error page by editing the 404.php file that is part of their WordPress theme.

This is what I have in my 404 Error page

I am sorry, but the page you requested could not be found. Please make sure that you spelled the URL correctly. You could try searching for the page using the search bar located on the header.

You could also try looking for the page in the Archives. You can find the Latest and Most Popular articles listed out in the sidebar.

You could then list out the Latest and Most Popular articles. The most popular articles can be listed out with the Popularity Contest WordPress Plugin.

You may use this code to list out your Latest posts

<h2>Latest</h2> <ul> <?php wp_get_archives('type=postbypost&limit=10'); ?> </ul>

You may also list out your Categories and Monthly Archives on the page.

Since I already had the Latest, Most Popular, Categories and Monthly Archives on my sidebar, I listed out some of my Top Posts on the page.

There is a WordPress Plugin that can list out the related posts for your 404 error page. Unfortunately the plugin does not work for me. It may be because I am using the Related Posts WordPress Plugin. Anyways let me know if you can get the plugin to work on your blog.

You can try out different things and make your blogs 404 Error page as friendly as possible.

Read posts on your favorite topic

Get tips on Blogging and Making Money Online via Email for FREE

Must be valid. No spam from me, promise. Or read via RSS.