The 404 page is the page that the user reaches on any website if he enters the wrong URL in the browser bar, or if he tries to access a specific article from your site via an archived result in the Google search engine after you deleted it, or other cases.
It is necessary, in the event of this error, that we take care to create a professional appearance for this page and design the 404 error page for our template correctly, and through it we try to provide the user with some important information and direct him to take an appropriate action, such as moving to the home page or one of the important pages on the site, or displaying a form. Search the site to help him find what he wants. This is what we will learn in detail in today’s article.
What is a 404 error page
WordPress theme 404 error page which is also known as “Page Not Found” error page is the page that any website provides when the required content is not present.
You must distinguish between the error page designated for a WordPress template, and the default 404 error pages provided by the browser, whose appearance differs slightly from one browser, and the error pages provided by some hosting servers that display their own messages informing the user that the page he is looking for does not exist, which usually includes the error code. 404 or a text phrase stating that the link you want to browse does not exist so that the user can find out the cause of the problem that appeared to him.
There is no doubt that the appearance of a default error page like the one shown in the image above is frustrating for the visitor, and will often prompt him to close the browser or search for what he wants on a site other than yours.
Therefore, it is necessary to design the 404 error page in your website template in a professional and easy-to-use way that enables you to keep readers on your site and direct them to a different page that provides them with the information they need.
In the following paragraphs, we will explain in detailed steps how to customize the 404 error page in the WordPress template that we are developing. Follow the explanation and create your own unique page.
How to create a 404 page with a custom design in a WordPress template
To display a custom error page in your WordPress theme, all you have to do is create a new template file in your theme folder, name it 404.php, and write the code you want in this file.
The nice thing is that you will not often need to inquire about any content in this file, and you will not have to use the WordPress Loop code. In most cases, it will be enough for you to design a static page with fixed content that displays some important texts and links.
The following diagram shows the appearance of the 404 page we want to design for our WordPress theme:
We will design our page to make it easy to understand why they landed on this page, and then ask the user to use the search form in the template header to find what they are looking for on the site.
To achieve this, go to your template folder and create a template file named 404.php within it and put the following code in it:
As you can see in the code above, the code is easy and understandable. It first displays the site header, then displays a static HTML code to show some static text and place a specific image in the middle of the page, and finally displays the page footer.
To test the operation of the 404 page, all you have to do is try to access any page that does not exist on your site (check the method of setting up permanent links on your site to know how to write the link in the browser). You will notice when you enter a link that does not exist that WordPress displays you the 404 error page that you created. just yet.
404 page format
The next step to do is to add CSS code to the style.css template file to design the 404 page elements as required, as follows:
Now when you try to browse any link that does not exist on the site, a 404 error page appears on the front end of the site, formatted as required, as in the following image:
Conclusion
In today’s article, we learned how to customize the design of the 404 page that appears to the user when he tries to access a page that does not exist on the server. We learned how to properly create a custom design for this page in our WordPress theme.
This would tell users that they are still on your website, and give you the opportunity to display some useful content to them so that they do not leave the site, or in this way, you would benefit from this error by increasing the conversion rate of your site instead of pushing the visitor to close the window and search for what he wants on another site.
