vBulletin Tutorials Discuss How to create a Custom 404 Error Page with a Google powered search box in the Community Forum Management forums; Earlier this morning I mistyped an address inside my forum and received a generic web browser 404 error page: Generic 404 Error Page.JPG Yuck! This certainly is not a warm ...

[popowich]

Earlier this morning I mistyped an address inside my forum and received a generic web browser 404 error page:

Generic 404 Error Page.JPG

Yuck! This certainly is not a warm and friendly greeting for a member or new visitor to your site.

While checking for a custom vBulletin enabled 404 error page on vBulletin.org the last attempt I could find was for vBulletin 3.5.

After doing a google search I found a good starting point at the vBSEO forums.

I got to work and used the examples in the first post to create a custom_404 template and a 404.php file on my web server.

Generic 404 Template and File.JPG

I did not feel right doing a copy/paste to my own example, please copy/paste from first post.

I am not a vBSEO customer so I needed to add an apache directive to the VirtualHost section of my httpd.conf for my web site:

ErrorDocument 404 /404.php

When testing my work I realized that I did not like the error message provided in the example above, and recalled recently seeing code at the Google Webmaster Tools web site for an enhanced 404 error page. If you do not have an account already, create an account, enter your site, and then you can click on Tools followed by Enhance 404 Pages to get code personalized for your forums.

Generic 404 Enhance 404 Pages.JPG

Replace the following line with the google enhanced 404 page code:

You can try a <a href="/search.php">search</a> if you are looking for something specific.

The result is a great looking custom 404 error page that includes a google powered search for your forums!

Demo

-Raymond

[ArnyVee]

Thanks Raymond!

I actually had gotten to the point where I set up my custom 404 screen, but I haven't put anything on it other than the following message....

"Sorry, the page you have requested cannot be found.

You can try a search if you are looking for something specific."

.....so, I have to make it a lot more spiffy obviously! This is a very good option.

Thanks again.

[2dub]

This is great! I will be putting it on this weekend.