Removing author name from 404 search results

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Hi Helpers,

Hope this is appropriate for this forum. It’s a question about our WordPress site, but I suspect it applies to all sites that produce 404 errors. 404 Search is something I have never tried before on our sites so I was surprised and embarrassed to see the results! I’ve attached a screenshot to show you what I mean.

Question: Is there a way to remove my/author name from 404 search results? My admin name is “cookiemonster” which is not overly professional for users to see on a consulting site! 🙁

Thanks for any help. Also, please let me know if this is not an appropriate question for this forum!

Linda

 

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I’m not sure what you mean by 404 search?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Sorry, Susan. To clarify: when I try to open a site page that does not exist, I will get a 404 error that asks me if I’d like to search the site. When I type the topic into that Search box, various instances of documents on our site show up, all of them with my WordPress user name, as in the screenshot.

Is there a way to remove that name from all the docs I’ve authored as the site admin.

Thanks and sorry for the confusion!

Linda

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Wouldn’t it be easier to remove search from the 404 page?

Remove search from 404 page [Resolved]

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Well, that’s a very interesting idea, b. Hadn’t thought of that. Will do some thinking on this as the solution (thanks for the link) involves CSS, which always makes me nervous! 😉

Will post back once I’ve decided on an approach.

Thanks for your suggestion,

Linda

1 user thanked author for this post.

b

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Good news…issue solved. Created generic new user and then did bulk edit on all pages and posts, changing my cookiemonster username to the new one. It now shows up on those Search results. I’ll be sure to use the generic user for future posts and pages I create!

Thanks for your willingness to help – as usual. It’s much appreciated.

Linda

1 user thanked author for this post.

Steve

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I’d want to remove the search from the 404 page.
The only thing you want on a 404 page is basic info and a link to your home page.

cheers, Paul

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Thanks, Paul. I was leery of doing that because it involves CSS, but I understand what you’re saying about the appropriate content on a 404 page. I’ll work more on exactly how to do this, starting with the directions provided in post #2635291.

I’ll post back with results.

Linda

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I’ll disagree with Paul on search. Being as the search feature only searches your site and not the web it could help visitors find what they are looking for. Only disadvantage I see is if it is abused and causes excessive server load.

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Thank you both for your opinions and rationales. For now, I’m planning to leave things as they are currently. Rationale? I’ve corrected the username issue on the new site (which has very few visitors currently) and I won’t have to get into CSS to remove the Search function.

As always, I appreciate your willingness to help!

Linda

 

 

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