Creating a custom 404 error page allows you to provide a more positive experience for visitors when they encounter a page not found error. It is easy to set up by adding a single line of code to the .htaccess file that redirects 404 errors to a custom HTML page you create. This page can include links to other areas of the site to encourage visitors to continue exploring. Tracking 404 errors can also notify site owners of broken links needing repair.

1. Creating a Custom 404 Error Page

2. Every web surfer has encountered the dreaded 404 page
not found error message.

3. The generic error page is horrible to look at and it does
not encourage web visitors to explore more of your site.

4. Imagine being able to setup a custom error message page
that looked good, told the visitor what had gone wrong
and then suggested some alternative links to other
locations on your site, such as the home page, sitemap or
even a search page.

5. If the visitor wanted to, they could then visit other parts of
your site.

6. It is very easy to setup a custom 404 error page (The 404
error is the error number returned when a page or
directory is not found on your site).

7. The easiest way to redirect visitors that encounter a 404 is
to either send them to your sites home page or to your
sitemap page

8. We do this by placing a one line of code in your websites
.htaccess file

9. ErrorDocument 404 /sitemap.html

10. This would redirect all 404 error messages to the sitemap
page.

11. The path to the page you want to display, must already
exist on your web server, otherwise the web server will tie
itself up in a never ending loop.

13. To make a custom error page, simply create a page using
your favorite webpage editor such as MS FrontPage or
DreamWeaver. The page can contain anything you wish,
such as images, links etc. Save the file as something easy
to remember (such as 404errors.html)

15. This would now mean that your .htaccess command line
would now look like:

16. ErrorDocument 404 /error/404errors.html

17. Now whenever a 404 error was generated on your site,
your custom error page will be displayed, and keep your
web visitors happy.

18. In the upcoming article, I will expand on this idea, and
show you how to you can receive an email notification
that a 404 error has occurred on your site. It will tell you
what caused the error, and the offending page. Allowing
you to try and fix all broken links leading to your site.

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