What is a “Coming Soon” and a “Maintenance” page?

No matter if you are dealing with an existing site or a newly started project, knowing how to set up a “Coming Soon” or a “Maintenance” page is always handy. Its usage is practically unlimited, as every webmaster may have his own agenda when setting it up. Some of the reasons you would like to configure either of the above pages are as follows:

• You have started a new project, and you want to hide it from being accessed until it is fully finished.
• You are changing your theme, or you are doing a full design overhaul on your site.
• Your website is compromised, and you want to prevent visitors from viewing it until it is clear.
• You are about to perform maintenance on your website - plugin updates, WordPress core updates, theme updates, or database optimization/refurbishing.
• Any other reason you believe your website should not be accessible to visitors

You may be wondering - how will I work on my website when it has the maintenance or coming soon flag active? If you follow this article to the end and apply our recommendations, you will not see this page as long as you remain inside your admin area.

What should I include in my “Coming Soon” or “Maintenance” page?

A well-stylized and well-structured “Coming Soon” or “Maintenance” page can be beneficial to your traffic as your visitors will receive information about what is happening to your brand. An example of an excellent “Coming Soon” or “Maintenance” page include:

• These pages should include either a “Coming Soon” or “Maintenance” messages, which should be ideally customized. Instead of “Coming Soon”, you can write “Something Awesome is awaiting reveal.”
• A timer, notifying your viewers how long the period in which your site is inaccessible will last. This timer is not mandatory, however, it adds an extra layer of flavor, raises expectations, and creates hype.
• Add a contact form that will gather visitors’ emails and passively gather leads during this period of your site’s inaccessibility.
• Add social icons or links that lead visitors to your brand’s social profiles where you can either provide updates about your site’s development or its maintenance and keep them up to date.
• If you set a “Maintenance” page, try to make the page’s design similar to your original website so that your audience can see a familiar sight when they land on the respective page.
• If you set a “Coming Soon” page, try to make your design similar to your future website. Doing so will prepare your audience for what’s to come and may get people excited! 

Now that we have gone over why setting up the pages mentioned above is a good idea, it's time to go over the process itself, which is very straightforward.

How to set up the “Maintenance” and “Coming Soon” pages in WordPress

• First, you need an active WordPress installation, which should not surprise anyone! 
• Log inside your admin dashboard. To do so, type “yourdomain.com” and then add a “/wp-admin” at the end. For example, “hostarmada.com/wp-admin”.
• Upon logging in, please go to the plugin installation page. If you are not sure how to do that, please follow our tutorial.
• The plugin you should be looking to install is the “Coming Soon Page, Under Construction & Maintenance Mode by SeedProd” plugin, which should appear as the first result when you type in “Coming Soon”. These plugins can be installed like any other standard WordPress plugin. In case you are not sure how to install a plugin, please find step-by-step instructions in our tutorial on How to install a WordPress plugin.
• After installing and Activating the plugin, you will see an additional option appear in the side menu - “SeedProd”. Please press it.
• Once this is done, you will be presented with the available types of pages you can set up - "Coming Soon" or "Maintenance Mode". Please choose the desired one.

• Next, you will see a list of the available templates you can choose from. In order to set a particular template, please hover over it and click on the icon with the tick.

• The following steps will walk you through the process of customizing the name and the content of the page. You should set everything based on your personal preferences.
• The “Desing” tab is where you can shine and make an excellent page. If you have any knowledge of CSS, the content box at the bottom will allow you to add custom CSS codes and further stylize your page.
• Finally, when you have enabled the page, please clear your WordPress cache if you are using a caching plugin, otherwise, your visitors may still see a cached version of your site.

Final Words

There you have it - the way of setting up a “Maintenance” or a “Coming Soon” page on your WordPress without too much hassle or any coding. A truly excellent way of letting your visitors know what is happening to your site that will keep them engaged at all times and will make sure they keep coming back for your awesome content!