404 error pages are unavoidable, they creep in somehow no matter how well you build your site. But its normal. 404 error pages could appear because of the user typing a wrong url, or a bad incoming link to a deleted/moved article.However an increased number of 404 error pages aren’t good for the general health of your site because a lot of them appearing only means that there is an issue gone unnoticed. Its recommended that you keep your 404 error pages to a minimum and where ever possible, find out the broken links and issue a 301 redirect for them if the content is shifted to another URL. If its just another 404 error page that occurred due to  a wrong URL or a typo, then its recommended that you try to provide alternatives for the user, by customizing your 404 error page and not showing him the ugly error message.

Here are 10 WordPress plugins that will help you to manage, monitor and customize your 404 error pages, so that your visitors don’t leave your site annoyed. These will help you to manage your 404 error pages more efficiently.

1. 404 SEO Plugin

This simple plugin will give you a customized, smart ‘Page Not Found(404)’ error message. It will automatically display links to relevant pages on your site, based on the words in the URL that was not found.

2. 404 Notifier

Detects and notify you of all the 404 errors that might creep in on the site unknowingly.

3. Smart 404

This plugin will perform a search of your posts, pages, tags and categories, using keywords from the requested URL and the search term. If there’s a match, it redirects to that matched content instead of showing the 404 error.

4. AskApache Google 404

AskApache Google 404 is a must-have WordPress plugin that uses some ajax and a couple tricks to display a very helpful and SEO Error Page. The default displays Google Search Results for images, news, blogs, videos, web, custom search engine, and your own site.

5. Dunstan style 404 error page

This plugin makes your 404 error pages more interactive giving the user various options like recent posts, feedback forms etc.

6. Redirection Plugin

This is a great plugin that handles all sorts of errors. Includes 404 error monitoring – captures a log of 404 errors and allows you to easily map these to 301 redirects.

7. Useful 404′s

As the name suggests, creates a more useful 404 error page, including email notifications for bad links.

8. Google 404 Error pages

The Google 404 plugin is a quick and easy way to embed a search box on your custom 404 page and provide users with useful information designed to help them find the information they need. Where it can, the Google widget will suggest other ways for the user to find the information they need, thus increasing the likelihood that they’ll continue to explore your site.

Additional Resources

1. 404 Error Pages and Redirects for SEOs

A handy guide explaining what 404 errors are what you can do with them to minimize SEO issues.

2. Get Creative With Your 404 Error Pages

Anther great article from SEO Moz explaining the possibilities of having a custom 404 error page

Hope you enjoyed the collection.