{"id":31598,"date":"2010-05-06T10:00:15","date_gmt":"2010-05-06T14:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpmu.org\/?p=31598"},"modified":"2013-07-24T20:31:15","modified_gmt":"2013-07-25T00:31:15","slug":"how-to-widgetize-your-wordpress-buddypress-404-page-in-2-simple-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/how-to-widgetize-your-wordpress-buddypress-404-page-in-2-simple-steps\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Widgetize Your WordPress \/ BuddyPress 404 Page in 2 Simple Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a rel=\"lightbox[31598]\" class=\"blog-thumbnail\" href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/404widget.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-31601\" title=\"404widget\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/404widget.png\" alt=\"Post image\" aria-hidden=\"true\" width=\"306\" height=\"263\" \/><\/a>Ever wanted to customize your 404 template to keep your users interested even after stumbling upon an error page?<\/p>\n<p>This tutorial is the ticket to transforming a boring old 404 page into a custom template that will enhance your site. You&#8217;ll be able to take any widgetized content and drop it into your 404 page.<\/p>\n<p>Why would you want to widgetize the 404 page? There are lots of reasons why this can be beneficial to your website:<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both; width: 630px; height: 5px;\"><\/div>\n<h2>Benefits of a Custom 404 Page:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>SEO &#8211; Your 404 page doesn&#8217;t need to be a dead, boring error page. You can fully optimize this error page in any way you want to.<\/li>\n<li>Keep your visitors engaged with recent posts, current forum topics, member groups, or any other community-specific widget.<\/li>\n<li>Create an experience that will draw new members to your fold.<\/li>\n<li>Embrace the opportunity to brand &#8211; error pages are a great way to set yourself apart with a clever, branded message, i.e. the &#8220;Fail Whale&#8221;. Don&#8217;t let any part of your site go out of character, even when notifying the user of an error.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Widgetizing your 404 page is so simple. You can copy and paste and do it in under two minutes.<\/p>\n<h2>Step 1: Register the 404 Widget Area in Functions.php<\/h2>\n<div style=\"float: left;\">\n<pre>register_sidebar( array(\r\n\r\n'name' =&gt; '404',\r\n\r\n'id' =&gt; '404',\r\n\r\n'before_widget' =&gt; '\r\n\r\n',\r\n'after_widget' =&gt; '\r\n\r\n',\r\n'before_title' =&gt; '\r\n\r\n',\r\n'after_title' =&gt; '\r\n\r\n'\r\n) );<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; width: 630px; height: 25px;\"><\/div>\n<h2>Step 2: Add the 404 Widget Tag to 404.php<\/h2>\n<p><code>&lt;?php dynamic_sidebar( '404' ); ?&gt;<\/code><\/p>\n<p>Now you&#8217;re finished! So easy, wasn&#8217;t it? You can start dragging and dropping widgets into your new 404 widgetized area and they will show up when your visitors stumble upon the wrong page.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the simple, customized 404 page below. It may not be the most unique 404 page you&#8217;ve ever seen but it optimizes the content and promotes the community far better than the standard error message. You&#8217;ll be able to use any of the WordPress or BuddyPress widgets available to you when you create the error page.<\/p>\n<p>Give your 404 page a boost and keep the attention of your first time visitors with a custom message.<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both; width: 630px; height: 5px;\"><\/div>\n<p><a rel=\"lightbox[31598]\" class=\"blog-thumbnail\" href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/custom404.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-31608\" title=\"custom404\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/custom404.png\" alt=\"Post image\" aria-hidden=\"true\" width=\"337\" height=\"548\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ever wanted to customize your 404 template to keep your users interested even after stumbling upon an error page? This tutorial is the ticket to transforming a boring old 404 page into a custom template that will enhance your site. You&#8217;ll be able to take any widgetized content and drop it into your 404 page. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4099,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"blog_reading_time":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_tutorials_categories":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,235],"tags":[],"tutorials_categories":[],"class_list":["post-31598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-community","category-misc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4099"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31598"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182122,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31598\/revisions\/182122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31598"},{"taxonomy":"tutorials_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tutorials_categories?post=31598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}