how to redirect non existent link on website back to the home page

Question

my question is how to redirect any non existent link on my website back to the home page. For example; imagine i have a page called \"pets\" on my site (http://mywebsite.com/pet

Answer 1

Set ErrorDocument 404 /index.html in your .htaccess file

Answer 2

Using mod_rewrite you can handle 404 (page not found) like this:

RewriteEngine on
Options +FollowSymlinks -MultiViews

RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . / [L]

This will preserve original link in the browser but will show your home page.

Answer 3

you can use mod_rewrite

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule (.*) index.php [R]

Answer 4

Equip the 404-page with a javascript redirect. Make sure it is timed, so visitors can see what happened.