How to Customize Your Own 404 File Not Found Page
Copyright 2006 Mark Nenadic
We’ve all run into them, the dreaded “404 File Not Found”
error page. When you land there, there are a few things
that you can do next. On average, what do you usually do
first when you hit one of those pages:
Immediately click your browser’s “back” button so that you
can try somewhere else. Try to edit the URL you’re
attempting to visit and then see if you can head back a
step and work your way to where you want to go. Write an
email to the web designer of the website to inform them of
the issue that you’ve spotted while navigating their site.
Let me guess what your answer was: You click the “back”
button on your web browser. If you’re like the majority of
web users, then that’s precisely what you answered. Most
of us don’t even realize that there are any other options
out there than to go back to where we started.
Therefore, it would be awfully nice to be able to help this
type of visitor to get back to your website in case they’ve
landed on an old link or have entered your URL improperly.
You can edit and customize your own 404 File Not Found page
so that it gives them the directions that they need so that
they can get back to your site and find what they want.
Of course, there are a few things that you’ll need to have
available to you if you want to customize that 404 File Not
Found page. The first, and most important, is that you
need to have a web host that enables you to edit that part
of your website. Some will, but some will not. Before
getting started, find out from your web host if they will
make that option available to you. To find out, look into
your hosting documentation and see if they mention anywhere
the ability to customize or edit a file named “.htaccess”.
If so, it will likely mean that you are able to customize
your 404 File Not Found.
If your web host does permit you to edit the 404 File Not
Found, then you’re ready to get started. The following are
the steps that you will need to follow:
Create/Modify your .htaccess file – this might not always
be necessary, but for some web hosts, it’s required. If
you don’t need it, then skip this step. If your server
isn’t an Apache web server, however, you’ll need to ask
your web host what you need to do to have the server serve
your edited file when a file on your domain can’t be found.
Otherwise, you simply need to add the following line to
your “.htaccess” file:
ErrorDocument 404 /notfound.html
With that done, you’ll need to create a notfound.html in
your main web directory. This will be what tells the
Apache web server that when it can’t find a file, then it
should use that URL.
It only takes one .htaccess file in your main directory to
cover your entire site and all of its sub-directories.
However, if you want specific sub-directories to show their
own 404 File Not Found messages, then you will have to
create a separate one in each directory. The .htaccess
file in any directory or subdirectory will override any
other .htaccess files you have in any other directory or
subdirectories.
Create the error file – now it’s time to customize your 404
File Not found page. Let the visitor know that the link is
not functioning, but don’t stop there. Provide the visitor
with alternatives. This should include a link to your main
page. If you have a search engine on your website, this
would be the ideal place to put a query box. This will make
your visitor’s experience very simple because now they can
simply type in what they want and they’ll be sent there.
If you don’t have a search engine on your website – or even
if you do – you might want to place a link to your site
map, allowing your visitors to easily find what they want
from the list. The point is simply to make sure that your
visitor doesn’t give up on you and head somewhere else.
Mark Nenadic
Mark is the director and face behind FifteenDegrees-North
http://www.15dn.com , where you will
find articles and
resources to help with SEO, marketing and Web design.
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