Comments on: Are You Optimizing Your 404 Page? Yes, Your 404 Page.

By: Pankaj Verma

Pankaj Verma — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:57:44 +0000

Great post. Love it. Thanks.

By: Nonoy

Nonoy — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:17:51 +0000

I have actually done my own version of optimizing the 404 error page. it’s been on for months until today. I tried checking my 404 page, by clicking a 404 error urls. What happened was, it shows nothing but a white page with little texts that says, 404 error. The design, the theme has gone. I wonder why. I hope you can help me.

Thanks a lot for posting this.

By: Tiggerito

Tiggerito — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:31:48 +0000

Out of the box WordPress does good. It returns the correct 404 status code and displays a friendly message using your own template.

There are some plugins to enhance the page, but I’ve had no personal experience with them so can’t recommend any.

By: Tony Marciante

Tony Marciante — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 07:21:16 +0000

any tips on good WordPress plugins to either design or handle 404 errors best?

By: B.Bambao

B.Bambao — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:24:48 +0000

Great post, Pat. Very useful info for me, and with good timing as well (have been thinking of what to do with my 404 lately… )

I’ve only got a small site for now, but still, need to keep the 404 in mind.

Cheers!

By: Tiggerito

Tiggerito — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 08:44:06 +0000

Here’s an extra tip.

If you are not using a pre-made plugin to handle your 404 pages then make sure your custom page returns the required 404 Status Code and not the normal 200 Stasus Code indicating all is OK.

I see this mistake a lot and it can lead to search engines getting confused about what pages they should really be indexing.

By: Tim Moreland

Tim Moreland — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:37:50 +0000

Pat,

I had a custom message but didn’t know how to edit the HTML to add the search form and categories. Thanks for providing your HTML as an example. Very helpful!

Tim

By: Pat

Pat — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:11:25 +0000

Anytime Steve – cheers!

By: Pat

Pat — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:01:26 +0000

Cheers Dave! Thanks for subscribing dude!

By: Steve Saha

Steve Saha — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 05:49:44 +0000

Hey Pat, I certainly dislike the look of the default 404 page. Optimizing the page is a great idea. I can put my thoughts on that page to help people further.
Thanks,
Steve