404 Error Redirect

404’s are part of every website. When coding a one page site, you might not have the time to create a custom 404 page. In which case, you might as well redirect the 404 page to your site’s homepage. In this article, we will show you how to redirect 404 page to home page in WordPress.

All you have to do is open your 404.php file in your theme’s folder. If it doesn’t exist, then create a blank php file. Paste the following code in there:

<?php
header(“HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently”);
header(“Location: “.get_bloginfo(‘url’));
exit();
?>

That’s all. Now when a user hits a 404 page will be redirected to the homepage.

Why 404 Error Handling Matters for SEO and User Experience

When a visitor or search engine crawler (such as Googlebot) requests a URL that no longer exists on your website, the web server returns an HTTP 404 Not Found status code. While occasional 404 responses are normal on the web, leaving broken internal links or unstyled error pages can hurt user retention and waste crawl budget.

Best Practices for Handling 404 Errors in WordPress & cPanel

• Use 301 Permanent Redirects for Moved Content: If an old page or blog post has moved to a new URL, set up a 301 Redirect in Rank Math SEO or your .htaccess file so search rankings and backlinks transfer seamlessly.
• Avoid Redirecting All 404s to the Homepage: Google recommends redirecting broken URLs to the most relevant replacement page rather than blindly redirecting every missing URL to your homepage (which Google treats as a Soft 404).
• Monitor Coverage in Google Search Console: Regularly check the Pages → Not Found (404) report in Google Search Console to identify and fix broken links pointing to your domain.

Running your site on APT COM Managed WordPress Hosting gives you full .htaccess control, LiteSpeed server-level redirects, and 24/7 technical assistance to keep your site error-free.