Custom 404 Page

Do you have a custom 404 page on your site(s)? If so, what does it say and what is on it?

 

The build-up:

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The warning itself, page not found.

- possibility there's an error in the url, if it's been typed
- possibility of outdated cache, if SE redirected the visitor
- Possibility of outdated link, if another site linked to the wanted page
- Possibility of an error on our site + joke about giving the webmaster a punishment for letting this fault slip in

Google searchbox
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How Can We Create One?

 

Add the folowing line in your .htaccess in the root:

Code:

ErrorDocument 404 /errors/404.html

/errors/404.html being www.mydomain.com/errors/404.html

 

Interestingly enough, I do not have a customized "404" page. I should probably get on this - something creative...

 

Instead of making a new thread, here we go:

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I have a funny one..

http://jethq.net/blabla

 

I love 404 pages, seriously. Funny, unique, they're amusing Unfortunately, my cable provider has taken the liberty to insert their own advertisements into this . I'm STILL trying to figure out how they're doing this, and remove it, but it's a major pain to find since I have none of their software on my PC

 

It should be something to do with the MODEM, if you have both modem and wireless router im 100% sure it wont be built into router but into the modem yes..

Ours did have one on but we called them up and removed it, try doing that?

 

Doubt it's the modem/router , the thing is close to a year old and this just started showing up.

I'll see what I can do calling them, typically, I hate calling them though, because I get these WTF answers , usually, like "What are you talking about?".

 

Doesnt vbseo redirect unfound pages to your index instead of using 404 pages?

 

Yup,

http://extremeteenforums.com/anypagehere

 

Yep, although you'd need to have a played a certain video game to get the joke on it.

 

you have a few different options for how it handles it, you can do nothing, redirect to forum index, or have it execute a custom script (IE a 404.php)

 

check the DNS server settings. I use openDNS at home and they do the same crap for unresolved domains and various other things.

 

Which is best for value retention if there is any when things are deleted? Surely returning to the index would be best correct?

 

For my sister's ghost stories e-book site, I used to have a little Zener card Javascript app to test people's "psychic abilities" on the 404 page. It got lost somewhere in the shuffle and I haven't fixed it yet.

 

Actually, this isn't dns server related. I use OpenDNS myself, and I have no problem with them doing that, because they at least try to help out there. Occasionally I'll mistype one of my common domains and Open DNS can catch that usually.

This is strictly 404 stuff. I really have no clue how they're doing it, and yeah, I should get ahold of them to tell them to stop spying on my network activity.

 

To answer my own question, yes I do have a custom 404 page: http://www.lineolatedparakeet.net/forums/anypage.

It only works for pages beneath the /forums directory because anything higher than that is caught by Wordpress: http://www.lineolatedparakeet.net/anypage

 

I used the directions here and added a little customization of my own :

Create a Custom vBulletin "404 Page Not Found" Page, and direct vBSEO to use it. - vBulletin SEO Forums

 

No, providing useful and resourceful 404 (and other error) pages are the best method.

Redirecting users back to the home page could get frustrating for the user. But if you provide them with a nice informative 404 page with a few useful links (site search, thread recommendations, even tags) would be a far better experience.