What does HTTP 404 mean?

The HTTP 404, 404 Not Found, 404, 404 Error, Page Not Found or File Not Found error message is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol standard response code, in computer network communications, to indicate that the browser was able to communicate with a given server, but the server could not find what was requested.

The Default 404 error pages are not good looking and don't have any type of navigations

Following are some methods you can use to auto-redirect to a custom error page.

• Website Running on Apache webserver

1. Create a custom webpage for 404 error and name it 404.html

2. Create a file name .htaccess

File content: ErrorDocument {error_code} {custom file path}

ErrorDocument 404 /404.html 

OR

ErrorDocument 404 https://yourwebsite.com/404.html 

Now the site will redirect to 404.html whenever the user gets a 404 HTTP response or browse the wrong URL path on your website.

Here are some hosting services that run on Apache webserver

• Website Hosted on Vercel.com

1. Create a custom webpage for 404 error and name it 404.html

2. Create a file name vercel.json

File content:

{
  "routes": [
    { "handle": "filesystem" },
    { "src": "/(.*)", "status": 404, "dest": "/404.html" }
  ]
}

Read more at official docs: https://vercel.com/guides/custom-404-page

• Website hosted on Github Page

  The simplest so far

1. Create a custom webpage for 404 error and name it 404.html

2. Add this file to your repository

3. Done

• Website running on Heroku

For a PHP app hosted on Heroku follow the same method as of Apache Server

OR

1. Create a custom webpage for 404 error and name it 404.html

2. Run this command on Heroku CLI
   

heroku config:set \ 
ERROR_PAGE_URL=//yourwebsite.com/public/404.html

Read more at official docs: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/error-pages

Note: Make sure the 404.html is present in your root directory with index.html

Video Tutorial [Apache Server] : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkB5ZxeYaJQ&t

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