What is a 404 error?
A "404 error" or any other "page not found" error is the general error message that web servers return when they cannot locate a requested file.
Please note: only rule about a custom 404 error page is you need to own your own domain, as uploading .htaccess files on a free server or subdomain may cause future problems for you or your host which may cause severe file loss or server downtime.
Let's get started! You can create the page with any extension you like :: '.html', '.php', '.shtml', '.htm', '.phtml', etc. Add your code in, and be very specific: tell the user that it is a 404 error that they've come across. Here is an example of what one could say:
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"Sorry, you've come across a 404 error. Please make sure to check your spelling in the URL, and try again.
If you got this error from a link anywhere on this site, then please report it to me ASAP at [email address here] so I can run over and fix it. Thank you! :) "
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Now code the page as if you'd code any other page, using html, head and body tags (along with doctype/etc if you wish to validate), and then add the coding which describes the layout. This could be the same coding as your normal layouts, or something a little different - be creative!
Open "Notepad", or a similar plain text editor, and insert the following line:
ErrorDocument 404 http://www.[domain.com]/404.[extension]
Remove the square brackets ('[ ]') and change the words 'domain' and 'extension' for the correct variable. EG. This means your Notepad file will look something like this:
ErrorDocument 404 http://avonleadreams.com/404.html
Save this Notepad file as 'htaccess.txt' and upload it to your server using your FTP client/host upload service in the *main* folder, where your index page is stored. Once uploaded, find where the file is, and rename it to '.htaccess' - make sure you remove the '.txt' extension, and place the dot BEFORE the word "htaccess".
Upload the custom error page to the same place as your new '.htaccess' file, and there you have it! Your very own custom 404 error page, ready for you to use!
Remember, you can create a graphic & background image for your 404 error page to be creative. My example is below:
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