To create a Joomla 3 custom 404 page do the following...
- Create an article called "404", style it the way you want the page to look including links.
- create a hidden menu with a menu item called "404", set your alias to the link you want to use. I recommend "404"
- go to "link type" tab and set "Display in menu" to off
- go to "metadata" tab and set it to "noindex,nofollow"
- go to cpanel and copy the error.php to your template root directory
- go to your template files and open the error.php we just copied a few steps ago.
- enter the rewrite code, as shown below, replacing "your-alias-here" with the alias we used when we created the menu item.
- go to your home page then put a silly url in like http://hallhome.us/burp
- If you get your 404 page congratulations your done. If not, go back thru these steps.
/* Load Custom 404 article with true 404 error code returned */
if (($this->error->getCode()) == '404') { header('Location: /your-alias-here'); exit; }
If you have SEF off then you'll need to follow the steps below...
- Create an article called "404", style it the way you want the page to look including links.
- create a hidden menu with a menu item called "404"
- on your menu, click the 404 menu item you just created.
- copy the link path shown in the url, such as...
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44&Itemid=462
- go to cpanel and copy the error.php to your template root directory
- go to your template files and open the error.php we just copied.
- enter the rewrite code replacing "your-alias-here" with the link we just copied
- go to the 404 menu item and on "link type" turn off "display in menu"
- go to "metadata" and in the robots area choose "noindex,nofollow"
- go to your home page then put a silly url in like http://hallhome.us/burp
- If you get your 404 page congratulations your done. If not, go back thru these steps.