How To Customize Custom 404 Page in WordPress

404 is the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) standard response code that indicates the page the visitor is requesting is not found. There are many reasons why the page returns 404, it could be the page has been deleted, the URL has been changed, and many other possibilities. Here's where the custom 404 page comes into play.

404 is one of the commonly used codes. In fact, different codes are used in different situations. For example:

301 Moved permanently

302 Found

307 Temporary Redirect

400 Bad Request

401 Unauthorized

410 Gone

500 Internal Server Error

502 Bad Gateway

The above are just some of the commonly seen codes. The list is not exhaustive. You can use this tool to check the returned code

Why Create Custom 404 Page

When the page users try to access does not exist, or users type the wrong URL, the default WordPress 404 page will be displayed

That looks good enough to tell users that the page cannot be found, but it can be improved to make it user-friendly. For example, includes the link to the homepage, list down the frequent access pages, sitemap, etc.

Look at how some of the companies handle the 404 pages:

How To Create Custom 404 Page?

You can control how your 404 page looks and create it your own. Follow the steps below:

Step 1: Create Your Own 404 Error Page in the Text Editor

Step 2: Install and Activate 404 Page plugin. Once activation is done, you can access the settings page from the plugin page or Appearance – 404 Error Page