Build A Better Blog Day 29

Today’s tip is one no blogger should be without. When someone tries to find something on your blog, say a post or a static page and the web server can’t find it, it usually serves up some kind of error, known as a 404. If you run a self-hosted Wordpress blog there is usually a 404.php file in your themes root folder. If your blog is hosted with a service like Blogger or Wordpress.com, you probably won’t have the ability to implement this tip. Sorry.

Here are some things you can put on your 404 page:

1. The last several posts from your blog
2. Show the last several comments
3. Show some of your categories or display a tag cloud
4. Show a list of the Archives
5. An option to search
6. Related posts of the key words used

Some blogging software have plug-ins you can use to create a 404 page that has all of these things built in. It requires a little bit of work on your part but once it’s running it works quiet well. Try this link to see my 404 page. What I don’t have on my 404 page are ads. Some people take this opportunity to throw a bunch of ads in front of you. You can do this, but I would recommend displaying relevant content instead.

Link to the plug-in I used on my 404 page. 

ProBlogger’s day twenty-nine post: Email a Blogger that Linked to You to Say Thanks