CREATING A CUSTOM 404 PAGE

Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: Joomla 6.1 and 5.4

When a page does not exist, Joomla shows its error page with a 404 status. In Joomla 5 and 6 you can adjust that page in three ways.

1. Change the text (easy)

1. Go to System › Language Overrides and choose your Site language.
2. Click New, search for text such as JERROR_LAYOUT_PAGE_NOT_FOUND or JERROR_LAYOUT_GO_TO_THE_HOME_PAGE, and enter your own wording.
3. Save, then open a non-existent address to check it.

2. Redirect old addresses

The Redirects component (Components › Redirects) can collect addresses that return 404 and send visitors to the right page. Enable the System - Redirect plugin with Collect URLs switched on, then add redirects for the addresses that appear.

3. A fully custom design (developers)

The error page is the template's error.php file. Create a child template of your site template (see "How to Install a Joomla Template?") and add your own error.php there, so template updates do not overwrite it. Keep the 404 status: do not redirect all errors to a normal page, because search engines would then treat missing pages as existing.

Tip: Add a search box and links to your main sections on the 404 page, so visitors can continue.