Previously I wrote a post about taking responsibility for your 404 errors.  Today I want to spend a little bit of time going over what I’ve done to change my own 404 error page.

You can see on the right what the default template and the default 404 error page looks like.  Needless to say it leaves a lot to be desired.

WordPress actually makes it very easy to program an improved 404 error page.  Yoast.com had an interesting article on a few changes to make an attractive 404 page. I had a couple small issues with the code he shared but I still really liked the general idea.  I made a few changes which seems to work better for me.

However you decide to design your error pages, keep in mind that they are important.  Doesn’t matter if you are using a WordPress blog, and eCommerce website, you don’t want to loose the traffic for visitors that might be coming into your site from an invalid link.

Editing your 404 Error Page is really simple.  For most templates you simply need to edit the file named 404.php  So here’s where I went with it:

## Pull Query Variables and check for exact match ##
$s = htmlentities(strip_tags($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']));
$s = str_replace(‘/’,”,$s);
$s = preg_replace(‘/(.*)\.(html|htm|php|asp|aspx)?$/’,'$1′,$s);
$posts = query_posts(‘post_type=any&name=’.$s);

## If no posts match perform search ##
$s = str_replace(‘-’,’ ‘,$s);
if (count($posts) == 0) {
$posts = query_posts(‘post_type=any&s=’.$s);
}

## Display results of either direct match or post search ##
echo ‘<ol>’;
if (count($posts) > 0) {
echo ‘<li>Were you looking for <strong>one of the following</strong> posts or pages?’;
echo ‘<ul>’;
foreach ($posts as $post) {
echo ‘<li>’;
echo ‘<a href=”‘.get_permalink($post->ID).’”>’.$post->post_title.’</a>’;
echo ‘</li>’;
}
echo ‘</ul>’;
}
echo ‘If not, don\’t worry, here are a few more options:</li>’;
echo ‘<li><strong>If you typed in a URL&hellip;</strong> make sure the spelling, cApitALiZaTiOn, and punctuation are correct. Then try reloading the page.</li>’;
echo ‘<li><strong>Look</strong> for it in the <a href=”/sitemap”>sitemap.</a></li>’;
echo ‘<li><strong>Start over again</strong> at my <a href=”/”>homepage</a> (and please <a href=”/contact-jason”>contact me</a> to say what went wrong, so I can fix it).</li></ol>’;

Here’s a quick graphic to show you how you might find the 404.php page from the admin of your WordPress site:

As you can see here from the code I took the Request URI from the server variables.  I clean it removing the starting slash as well as the ending extension.  I then take and process to see if I can find a name match, if not I remove dashes and do an actual keyword search.

My final result builds a page which includes the above results if there were any.  In addition I add in a possible fix, links to site map and home page, as well as a link to my contact page.

I still want to add the ability for a visitor to just perform a search right there on the 404 page, which technically they can in my header, but we’ll see what I put together who knows.

So there I was, looking around the search engines for some new info, tools and resources to help my coaching clients with their WP blogs, and I came across this very interesting “Cheat Sheet” for WP themes.

Now I think it’s safe to say to that most people know having a custom WP theme has huge benefits, but most people out there don’t know anything about the subject.

So, I wanted to share it with you…

The WordPress Help Sheet includes the following:

* Basic Template Files
* PHP Snippets for the Header
* PHP Snippets for the Templates
* And Extra Stuff for WordPress

Read More At: http://wpcandy.com/articles/tutorials/the-wordpress-help-sheet.html

Having a “Cheat Sheet” is a great benefit and much needed resource for even the seasoned pro when it comes to WP themes.

I recommend go to the address above and grabbing a copy of the “Cheat Sheet” now – it’s FREE which makes it even better as a needed resources

I’ve finally gone and done it!

I’ve released my first WordPress report – and it’s FREE!

That’s right.

Today I officially released my new “WordPress Basics Starter Guide” report and I’m giving it away 100% FREE!

This report is a basic guide that walks you through the process of setting up and configuring your blog AFTER you have it installed.

Everything from what to enter in your blog name field to adding your first post and even links, categories and a ping list.

It’s NOT a how to blog guide, but a guide that helps people get their WordPress blog up and running correctly with all of the best (my own experiences) settings put in place to start getting some good results right away.

You can get the report at: http://www.wordpress-master.com/free-wordpress-basics-report

And I even have a way for you to get a free gift on top of the free report.

Anyway, let me know what you think of the report

Here’s the link again!

http://www.wordpress-master.com/free-wordpress-basics-report