Web Advisor » Custom Error Pages
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Why create a custom error page?
- Visitors get errors for various reasons. Even if there are no broken links in your web site a visitor may misspell a url and get a page not found Error 404.
- It retains your web site branding
- Shows visitors they are still on the same web site
- Can be a useful navigation tool and help keep visitors on your web site
Error Page has to have the following information:
- Branding and main navigation links
- Brief message explaining the error
- Suggesting for visitors that they should check the link
- Brief paragraph about your web site
- Search box
- Site map
- An email link to your webmaster
*Don't use the word "error", it can scare off webpage visitors.
List of Errors
| Error Code | Label |
|---|---|
| 400 | Bad Request |
| 401 | Authorization Required |
| 403 | Access Forbidden |
| 404 | File Not Found |
| 500 | Internal Server Error |
How to create a custom error page:
- Create all the custom error pages you need for your site and save them in a folder called /errors/ as error404.html
- Go to the main root directory of your web site and look for a file called .htaccess (If you have the file, you need to edit it, If you don't have the file, create a new text document and save it as ".htaccess")
- Add/edit the following line: ErrorDocument 404 /errors/error404.html
- the text needs to remain exactly as above
- stay on one line
- keep a space on both side of the number 404
- use the uppercase for the E and D in ErrorDocument (it's case sensitive)
- Add any other errors for the pages you have created
- Save .htaccess
- Publish the .htaccess file to your root site directory
- Publish your custom error pages
- Test it to see if it works on your web site by typing in an erroneous url