Apache custom 404 page that returns 404 error

Question

I have a custom 404 error page on my apache (404.php) and it works normally, but if someone or any search engine requests the /404.php page, the server returns 200 (OK), because the page actually exists.

I have already put the Disallow: /404.php on my robots.txt file to prevent Google from indexing that page, but I'd like to return 404, including to this page request.

Is there a way to also return 404 when someone reaches the 404.php directly?

Is the link you are providing in the .htaccess file absolute (http://server/404.php) or relative? — Marc L'Heureux, Jan 27 '13 at 18:34

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 27 '13 at 18:46

I just whipped this up really quickly:

<?
 header("HTTP/1.1 404");
 echo "ERROR"; // Put the contents of your 404 page here.
?>

I checked it in Chrome, and this will return a 404 code in the header, and let you write whatever you'd like to the rest of the page. Just put the header function at the beginning of the page.

Apache custom 404 page that returns 404 error

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