Customizer

How to Assign the 404 Navigation Menu

By Daniel Ekay May 18, 2026 2 min read
Docs Customizer How to Assign the 404 Navigation Menu
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Aurora’s 404 page has its own dedicated menu location, separate from your primary navigation. This lets you show a focused set of links on the error page, such as your most important categories, the homepage, or a contact link, without displaying your full site navigation.

WordPress Menus admin screen showing menu location assignments including Primary, Secondary, Footer and other Aurora menu locations
404 Page Style panel showing style dropdown, title field, body text, background image upload, button text and button link fields

How to Set It Up

  1. Go to Appearance → Menus.
  2. Create a new menu or select an existing one.
  3. Add the links you want visitors to see when they land on a 404: popular categories, the homepage, a search page link, or your contact page.
  4. Under Menu Settings → Display location, check 404 Menu.
  5. Click Save Menu.

Where It Appears

The 404 menu renders on your error page in a position determined by the active 404 layout. Some layouts display it as inline links; others render it as a navigation block. The placement adjusts automatically based on which 404 template is active.

404 Page Style dropdown showing all five options: Anthro, Deep, Default, Serene, Simple

If No Menu Is Assigned

If nothing is assigned to the 404 Menu location, Aurora simply renders the 404 page without a navigation block. No fallback to the primary menu is used. The error page stays clean rather than showing your full header navigation out of context.


Related

See How to Switch 404 Page Layouts for the full list of 404 designs and what each one includes.

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