Now a 404 page isn’t something you are usually looking for, nor is it something that you are particularly happy to find, but we all find ourselves there at least once in a while. I decided that fixing up my 404 page to be something that at least made you giggle instead of inspiring frustration was something small and easy that I could manage. If you are like me, and you want to dress up your 404 page, keep reading, if not come back tomorrow for our regularly scheduled crafting! 🙂
First off, check out your site’s 404 page. Have you ever even seen it? Chances are someone else has and it probably looks something like this.
Now luckily, it is a pretty simple fix. The first thing you need to do is create an image. Maybe you want kittens playing with yarn, or unicorns in a meadow. Maybe grumpy cat is going to make a guest appearance, whatever it is and whatever you want it to say, get busy making it. Once it’s done come back here. I’ll wait…
Okay, I decided that I wanted a “Hey Girl” for my page, I mean who doesn’t giggle and get fluttery at the sight of Ryan Gosling…anyone? I didn’t think so. So I created my image and uploaded it into my media gallery. Then I opened a new tab (because it’s easier that way) and went to my blog dashboard. On the left hand navigation I scrolled down to “appearance” and hovered over it, then clicked on “editor”.
This took me to the sweet realm of all the templates and layouts for my entire blog! Now be careful what you do in here, because one wrong move and everything could be all whacked out. That being said, let’s keep going. Find the file on the right hand side that says 404 and click on it to open it. Now it will probably look something like this.
You want to scroll down until you find the wording that you see on your actual 404 page, so you might have to flip tabs back and forth to get it just right. Now before we delete anything, I suggested copying and pasting that ENTIRE file into a word document in case you mess up and need to restore it back to original. Just be safe.
Once you have the right code selected, delete it. I know, it’s going to be okay though. Replace it with this: <img src:”URLofYourImageHere.jpg”> Then save.
Now flip back over to your 404 tab and refresh it. Did it work? If so pat yourself on the back, if not, go back and try adding back some code or taking more away until it works! You can do it! And if it all goes horribly wrong (which it won’t) you can always paste back in the original code from that word document you created! But that won’t happen, instead you’ll get your very own version of this