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404 ERROR IN BLOGGERWith the introduction of latest search preferences by Blogger, BlogSpot blogs are now far more optimized than they used to be before. One of the features was "Errors and redirections" The "404 Error" in simple terms is a page that appears when a broken link is clicked and it tells the visitor that the page he clicked no more exits or is deleted. The error page loads inside your post body surrounded a dull grey box. By default you can only add plain text along with HTML tags inside the "Custom Page Not Found" input box using search preferences option page. The message display using this technique looks pretty ugly and we would therefore need a better approach to design a creative 404 Message for a BlogSpot blog. First kindly see a demo of our error page:

LIVE DEMO

Design 404 Error Page For Blogger

The reason why a box appears around the error message is because of Blogger's default style sheet for status messages. We would therefore override the existing style sheet for the error_page alone using conditional statements. I will be using the CSS code prepared by my friend aneesh joseph which really make things simple and would add slight modifications to make the error box more attractive.
Our 404 page will prompt visitor that he has landed a wrong page and will provide him three important options which are:
  • Go Back to the page from where he came from. We will use JavaScript here.
  • Contact the Admin and inform him about the broken link. This will help you track broken links
  • And finally to provide a link to homepage.
So lets get to work to achieve all the above. Simply follow the easy steps below to display 404 error message uniquely.
  1. Go To draft.blogger.com > Settings > Search Preferences
  2. Click on Edit link next to : Custom Page Not Found
  3. Inside the box paste the following code:
<!-- MBT Default Template -->
<div class='MBT-404-box'>
  <p style='line-height: 30px'><strong>
<font color='#ff0000' size='5'>
Oops!
</font> <font color='#666666'>
Looks like you either clicked a broken link or a Page that no more exits. Kindly do one of the followings:
</font></strong></p>
  <ol style='line-height: 25px'>
    <li><a href='javascript:history.go(-1)'>&#171; Go Back</a> </li>
    <li>Report the Problem to us by <a href='http://contact.mybloggertricks.com'>Clicking Here</a>&#160;&#160;&#160; (<em>This will help us serve you even better</em>) </li>
    <li>Go To Homepage by <a href='http://www.mybloggertricks.com'>Clicking Here</a>
      <br/></li>
  </ol>
  <p>
    <br/>
    <br/>
    <br/></p>
  <p align='center'><font color='#0080ff' style='font-size: 150px'><strong>404</strong></font></p>
  <p>&#160;</p>
  <p align='center'/>
  <p align='center'><font size='5'>Page Not Found!</font></p>
</div>

         Make these customizations:
  • You can edit the bolded texts with anything you like
  • Replace http://contact.mybloggertricks.com with link of your contact page
  • Replace http://www.mybloggertricks.com with your homepage link
   4.   Click the Save changes  button and you are half way done.
    5.  Now go to Template > Edit HTML
   6.   Search for this ]]></b:skin>
    7.  Just below it paste the following code stylsheet code:
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;error_page&quot;'>
<style type='text/css'>
.status-msg-wrap {
    font-size: 100%;
    margin: none;
    position: static;
    width: 100%;
}
.status-msg-border {
    display:none
}
.status-msg-body {
    padding: none;
    position: static;
    text-align: inherit;
    width: 100%;
    z-index: auto;
}
.status-msg-wrap a {
    padding: none;
    text-decoration: inherit;
}
.MBT-404-box {
  background:#FFFFFF;
  width:98%;
  margin:10px 0px;
  padding:20px 10px;
  border:1px solid #ddd;
  -moz-border-radius:6px;
  -webkit-border-radius:6px;
  border-radius:6px;
  box-shadow: 5px 5px 5px #CCCCCC;
}
</style>
</b:if>
     To change the background colour of the box edit #FFFFFF
    8.   Save your template
    9.   Done!
Visit any page of your blog that do not exist to see it working just perfectly. You may type anything after your blog address to see the 404 error appearing. For example like:
http://yourblog.blogspot.com/blablabla
or
http://yourblog.blogspot.com/xyz
or
http://yourblog.blogspot.com/anything-here
etc....

What's next?

I am working on some exciting new designs for the 404 error page display and will share latest 404 templates soon.  Do let me know if you got into some trouble. Make the best out of blogger. Peace pals! :)
 
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