Customize your 404 error page.

What is the 404 error page?

When I customized the 404 error page for Henrico Web Design, I had to use Google to find out how to get it done. What i found was a lot of sites that told me how, but none of them were clear enough that I could just do it, I had to understand what they said and still had to figure some things out myself. So, here I will tell you in the simplest way how to get it done, and why.

How to make a custom 404 error page

This document will have only one line. Copy this in your text.txt document, and enter your website address instead of mine.
ErrorDocument 404 http://www.henricowebdesign.co.za/custom_page.html Upload this file to your server with FTP. Once this is done, change the name of the file on the server to ".htaccess" Note the . infront of the file name. Next, simply design and upload your customized 404 error page and name it "custom_page.html"

In most cases, that is it, all you need to do. Test the page by typing your website adress in the address bar followed by an incorrect page. For example, www.henricowebdesign.co.za/blonde.html
If it brings out your custom 404 page then you are done. If not, you have some more work to do.For some servers, you would need to change the setting of the file on your server. Click here to view my customized 404 error page.

Why make a custom 404 error page

Keep the same design that you have on all your other pages, this will let the viewer know that he is still in the right place, and it will still give him the normal navigational links you have on all your other pages. Have a link to your homepage and a link to your site map. I also added a search box where the visitor can search my site for somethng specific.