Customizing Thesis WordPress Theme 404 Error Pages

No one likes 404 Error pages. A 404 Error page is the requested page that doesn’t exist. When a user open a page on your blog, and that page do not exist on your blog, he will get a 404 error.

In normal scenario user will hit the back button or close the page. The loss will be yours since you will not be getting and visits on your page.

How to customize Thesis WordPress theme 404 Error Page

By adding a simple code we can add style to our Thesis 404 error page, but our goal should be show some related content to your 404 error page, so that visitor will still stick to your blog.

To achieve the desired result we need :

Smart 404 Plugin : Smart 404 plugin will help you to customize your 404 error pages. If you don’t have Thesis wordpress theme, you can also use this plugin on non Thesis blogs.

Download the plugin and activate it. Now Edit your custom_functions.php file which is located at Thesis > Custom folder. Add following code to customize the 404 Error page and show some related content

/* Custom 404 Hooks */
function custom_thesis_404_title() {
?>
The Page you requested is somewhere here.
<?php
}

remove_action('thesis_hook_404_title', 'thesis_404_title');
add_action('thesis_hook_404_title', 'custom_thesis_404_title');

function custom_thesis_404_content() {
?>
<p>Can't find what you looking for?</p>

<?php if (smart404_loop()) : ?>
<p>Check out These related posts:</p>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<h4><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"
  rel="bookmark"
title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>">
<?php the_title(); ?></a></h4>
  <small><?php the_excerpt(); ?></small>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php endif; ?>

<?php
}

remove_action('thesis_hook_404_content', 'thesis_404_content');
add_action('thesis_hook_404_content', 'custom_thesis_404_content');

You can see an example by Opening this link

http://www.shoutmeloud.com/error

Customizing your blog 404 Error page will ensure lower bounce rate.

If you still missing the benefit of SEO perfect wordpress theme, I will recommend get Thesis wordpress theme or read following posts :

• Thesis wordpress theme review
• All in one SEO wordpress plugin and Thesis wordpress theme
• Why I love Thesis wordpress theme
• Customize Thesis easily with Thesis openhook plugin
• Add Page navigation to Thesis wordpress theme

Article by Harsh Agrawal

Harsh has written 1206 articles.

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