Creating custom 404 page on Blogger blog
As a blogger, you must have faced situations when a link given by you on a post went dead and you noticed it only when you reviewed your links a few months later. Or when you updated an old post and gave it a new name, and your friend told you that your earlier link to that post gives a '404 error'.
Well, if you have never faced such problem as a blogger or a web surfer, type the URL of a page out of your website or blog and type the word just before .com wrong. You will be taken to a page that announced that such a page does not exist.
There are many reasons for a 'Not Found' or 'broken link' message, which is called 404 error in web parlance: wrong typing of the URL (as in the example above), the linked page going dead because the page has been removed or moved, etc.
You as a blogger have no control over people typing your blog's URL wrong. What is embarrassing and harmful in terms of blog SEO is when links given on your blog are broken or dead. You must check your blog's broken links often and correct them.
There is a standard 404 page provided on Wordpress and Blogger free blogging platforms. On Blogger, you can modify the page to your liking; however, the free Wordpress.com does not allow that. If your blog is on Blogger platform, make a custom 404 page this way:
There are many reasons for a 'Not Found' or 'broken link' message, which is called 404 error in web parlance: wrong typing of the URL (as in the example above), the linked page going dead because the page has been removed or moved, etc.
You as a blogger have no control over people typing your blog's URL wrong. What is embarrassing and harmful in terms of blog SEO is when links given on your blog are broken or dead. You must check your blog's broken links often and correct them.
How to make custom 404 page on Blogger
There is a standard 404 page provided on Wordpress and Blogger free blogging platforms. On Blogger, you can modify the page to your liking; however, the free Wordpress.com does not allow that. If your blog is on Blogger platform, make a custom 404 page this way:
a. On your Blogger dashboard, go to the blog in question, go to Settings. Now, go to 'Errors and redirects'. Click on 'Custom 404' and you will get a text box and write your message.
b. The total text can be up to 10,000 characters but do not clutter the box with too much text.
c. The box for '404 page' accepts HTML, so use simple tags as advised here: Decide which part of the content you'd make bold. Also decide what text you'd like to link to other resources. Choose only one or two such expressions, no more.
d. For giving link to the desired text, which will be the page you want people to visit in case of broken link, put that in the structure as given below:
<h3><a href="https://www.indiantopblogs.com">Best Indian Blogs</a></h3>
In place of Best Indian Blogs, give your blog's title or something else; in place of https://www.indiantopblogs.com, give the URL of the page intended to be linked. You can just put <h3> and </h3> at the beginning and end of the text you want to highlight. In general, do this around a good keyword or your blog's title. In this example, we have put these tags around the title with link.
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| Blogger dashboard>> Settings>> Errors and redirects |
c. The box for '404 page' accepts HTML, so use simple tags as advised here: Decide which part of the content you'd make bold. Also decide what text you'd like to link to other resources. Choose only one or two such expressions, no more.
d. For giving link to the desired text, which will be the page you want people to visit in case of broken link, put that in the structure as given below:
<h3><a href="https://www.indiantopblogs.com">Best Indian Blogs</a></h3>
In place of Best Indian Blogs, give your blog's title or something else; in place of https://www.indiantopblogs.com, give the URL of the page intended to be linked. You can just put <h3> and </h3> at the beginning and end of the text you want to highlight. In general, do this around a good keyword or your blog's title. In this example, we have put these tags around the title with link.
Save. If you do not like the boldness of the text, try <h4>, </h4> tags in place of <h3> and </h3> tags.
e. In case you want to put an image in addition to text,
put the image link in the following form wherever you want to place the image:
<img src="https://www.https://abracadabra.png">
Be sure that the image is available somewhere on your website or blog so that you have an URL for it. In this example, change https://www.https://abracadabra.png into the correct URL of the image that you want to put on the '404 page'.
e. In case you want to put an image in addition to text,
put the image link in the following form wherever you want to place the image:
<img src="https://www.https://abracadabra.png">
Be sure that the image is available somewhere on your website or blog so that you have an URL for it. In this example, change https://www.https://abracadabra.png into the correct URL of the image that you want to put on the '404 page'.
All images you put on the Blogger blog are stored in Google Photos album and have URL something like this:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/khukjjd#/jhgu65ldjjd42/new.png
If you want to use an image from an earlier post on your blog, you can open that post on the browser and right click on it. Look for the image information, which will give its URL.
f. Before you close the custom 404 page work, test it. On a new browser tab, type the wrong URL and see the resulting page carefully. Correct the problems by again going to 'Settings'.
This is how the custom 404 page message on TopBlogs looks:
