Advanced 404-page snippet for WordPress

This PHP code is designed to handle custom 404 errors in a WordPress environment. Its main purpose is to improve the user experience by attempting to redirect users to the most relevant page or provide helpful suggestions if a requested URL cannot be found. Here's a detailed breakdown of what the code does:

Key Features:

1. Extract the Last Segment of the URL:

• The script retrieves the requested URL and isolates the last part of the path (e.g., for /some/path/example, it extracts example).

2. Search for Existing Paths:

• A function (find_existing_path) is used to check whether the extracted segment matches:

-- A published post slug.
-- A tag slug in the WordPress taxonomy.

• If a match is found, the function returns the URL of the corresponding post or tag.
• If no match is found in the primary database search, it checks a predefined list of folders (blog, category, etc.) for potential matches. If a match exists, it constructs and returns the appropriate URL.

3. Redirect to the Found Path:

• If a matching path is found in the search process, the user is redirected to it using a 301 permanent redirect.

4. Search for Similar Content:

• If no exact match is found, the script converts the last segment into a search query by replacing special characters (-, _, and %20) with +.
• It performs a WordPress search query to find up to 5 posts that might be relevant.

5. Display Search Results:

• If matching posts are found, it displays them to the user in the following way: -- A heading is shown in the appropriate language (Russian, Italian, or English), depending on the site's locale. -- Instead of plain links, the thumbnails of the suggested posts are displayed using a loop (get_template_part).

6. Fallback:

• If neither a matching path nor search results are found, the standard 404 error page will remain.

Purpose:

This script enhances WordPress’s default 404 error handling by:

• Redirecting users to relevant pages if possible.
• Providing search-based suggestions when exact matches are unavailable.
• Improving user navigation and potentially reducing bounce rates.

`
function handle_custom_404() {
// Get the requested URL path
$request_uri = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
$request_path = trim(urldecode($request_uri), '/');

// Extract only the last segment of the path
$last_segment = basename($request_path);

// Function to search for an existing path in other folders
function find_existing_path($path) {
    global $wpdb;

    // Perform a combined query to search for slugs in posts and tags without a LIMIT 1 restriction
    $results = $wpdb->get_results($wpdb->prepare(
        "(SELECT ID AS item_id, 'post' AS item_type FROM {$wpdb->posts} 
          WHERE post_name = %s AND post_status = 'publish')
        UNION ALL
        (SELECT t.term_id AS item_id, 'tag' AS item_type FROM {$wpdb->terms} t
          INNER JOIN {$wpdb->term_taxonomy} tt ON t.term_id = tt.term_id
          WHERE t.slug = %s AND tt.taxonomy = 'post_tag')",
        $path, $path
    ));

    // If exactly one record is found, return its URL
    if (count($results) === 1) {
        $result = $results[0];
        if ($result->item_type === 'post') {
            return get_permalink($result->item_id);
        } elseif ($result->item_type === 'tag') {
            return get_tag_link($result->item_id);
        }
    }

    // If multiple results or none are found, use the old logic
    $paths_to_check = ['blog', 'category', 'news', 'tag', 'news/news-photo'];

    foreach ($paths_to_check as $folder) {
        $potential_path = $folder . '/' . $path;

        // Check if a page exists at this path or a term exists in the required taxonomy
        if (url_to_postid(site_url($potential_path)) != 0 || term_exists($path, $folder)) {
            return site_url($potential_path);
        }
    }

    return false;
}

// Check if a similar path exists in other folders
$existing_path = find_existing_path($last_segment);

if ($existing_path) {
    // If a similar path is found, perform a redirect
    wp_redirect($existing_path, 301);
    exit;
}

// Search by keywords, replacing "-" and "_" with pluses
$search_query = str_replace(['-', '_', '%20'], '+', $last_segment);

// Perform a search by keywords
$search = new WP_Query([
    's' => $search_query,
    'posts_per_page' => 5
]);

// Output results if found
if ($search->have_posts()) {
    echo '</br>';

    $locale = get_locale();
    if ($locale === 'ru_RU') {
        echo '<h2>Возможно Вы искали это:</h2>';
    } elseif ($locale === 'it_IT') {
        echo '<h2>Forse stavi cercando questo:</h2>';
    } else {
        echo '<h2>Perhaps you were looking for this:</h2>';
    }
    echo '</br>';
    echo '<div>';
    // Instead of displaying links, output post thumbnails
    while ($search->have_posts()) : 
        $search->the_post();
        echo '<div class="post-thumbnail">';
        get_template_part('content', get_post_format());
        echo '</div>';
    endwhile;

    // Output pagination
    // the_posts_pagination();

    echo '</div>';
    wp_reset_postdata();
}

}

`

This code on GitHub

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Comments

[Shahzeb Ahmed]

Great solution for enhancing WordPress 404 pages! The idea of redirecting to relevant posts or tags while offering search-based suggestions is a smart way to improve user experience and reduce bounce rates. I’ve used Cloudways for hosting, and it provides fast load times and reliable performance, which makes implementing custom solutions like this even more effective. Definitely bookmarking this for future reference!

[Andrew Lazarev]

I only use web servers, webhost is not relevant