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Blogger Custom Domain Showing 404? Here's the Actual Fix

By The BloggerSpot Author
Browser showing a 404 error after connecting a custom domain to Blogger

That cold feeling when you connect a custom domain to your Blogger blog and get a “404 Not Found” or “Site Can’t Be Reached” instead of your site is genuinely alarming the first time it happens. The first thought is usually: did I just delete my whole blog?

You didn’t. Your content is still safe on Google’s servers — this is a connection problem between your domain registrar and Blogger, not a deletion. Here’s how to actually diagnose and fix it, step by step.

Diagnose the Type of Error First

Before changing any settings, figure out which of two different problems you’re actually looking at. Applying the wrong fix wastes time and adds to the panic.

Check two things immediately:

  1. Can you still reach your blog at its original .blogspot.com address?
  2. What’s the exact error message on your custom domain?

Error Type 1 — “Server Not Found” A generic browser error: “This site can’t be reached,” ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED, or DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN. This means DNS has no record at all for your domain — your browser looked for an address and found nothing. This is a DNS configuration issue at your domain registrar, not anything inside Blogger.

Error Type 2 — The Blogger-branded 404 A designed page with Blogger’s own 404 graphic. This actually means DNS is working — your browser reached Google’s servers successfully. Blogger just isn’t recognizing your domain as belonging to your blog yet. This is a handshake problem, not an infrastructure problem.

The “Wait 48 Hours” Advice Is Incomplete

You’ll see this everywhere, and it’s not wrong, just not the whole picture. DNS changes propagate through cached records across different networks at different speeds — that’s why your site might load on mobile data but not home Wi-Fi. The real fix isn’t passive waiting; it’s making the correct changes, then actively checking whether they’ve propagated using a real tool (covered below), rather than just hoping.

Step-by-Step Fix

1. Fix the naked domain (the most common culprit)

Symptom: your site works at www.yourdomain.com but 404s at yourdomain.com without the www.

Cause: the naked/apex domain needs its own A records pointing to static IP addresses. If they’re missing, it fails.

Fix:

  1. Log into your domain registrar’s DNS management panel
  2. Delete any existing A records for the naked domain (host: @ or blank)
  3. Add four new A records pointing to Google’s current IPs:
216.239.32.21
216.239.34.21
216.239.36.21
216.239.38.21

2. Verify the CNAME records

Main CNAME: host www, pointing to ghs.google.com.

Security CNAME: in your Blogger dashboard, go to Settings → Publishing → Custom domain, re-enter your domain with www, and save. A popup will show a second, unique CNAME record (a random string pointing to something like gv-xxxxx.dv.googlehosted.com). Add that exact record to your registrar’s DNS too — it’s specific to your blog and won’t match anyone else’s.

3. If SSL gets stuck

Blogger provisions a free SSL certificate automatically. Seeing the Blogger-branded 404 for the first 1–4 hours after correct DNS setup is often just certificate generation in progress.

If it’s stuck longer than that with DNS confirmed correct: in Blogger, go to Settings → Publishing → Custom domain, find HTTPS Availability, toggle it off, save, wait a full 10 minutes, then toggle it back on and save again. This forces certificate regeneration and resolves most stuck cases within 30–60 minutes.

4. Set the redirect

In the same Custom domain settings, check the box to redirect the non-www version to the www version (or vice versa, whichever you set as canonical). This resolves the naked/www split permanently from Blogger’s side.

Actually Verify the Fix — Don’t Just Guess

  • Use an incognito/private window and a hard refresh (Ctrl+F5 or Cmd+Shift+R) — your own browser is caching the old broken state
  • Check propagation with a real tool — whatsmydns.net or dnschecker.org. For the A record, check your naked domain and confirm the four Google IPs show up globally. For the CNAME, check www.yourdomain.com and confirm it resolves to ghs.google.com
  • Test both http:// and https:// separately — if HTTP works but HTTPS still 404s, your SSL certificate specifically isn’t active yet; go back to the toggle trick above

Prevention

  • Set a calendar reminder a month before your domain renews. A lapsed domain is the single most catastrophic version of this error, and it’s entirely avoidable.
  • Use Blogger’s built-in Custom Redirects (Settings → Search preferences → Custom Redirects) if you ever change a post’s URL, so old links don’t just break.
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