How Do You Unpublish a WordPress Site: A Cautionary Tale
WordPress sites are often launched with the best of intentions, designed to grow a business or share a passion. Sometimes, however, a site outlives its initial purpose, becomes unmanageable, or is simply not ready for public viewing. Left active, an outdated or incomplete site can feast on your professional reputation and rapidly breed confusion among visitors. No aspect of your online presence is immune: a poorly performing site is known to strangle lead generation and swallow potential clients whole. It has no natural benefit to speak of, so a proactive site owner must step in. This is precisely when you need to know how do you unpublish a wordpress site.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Unpublishing Your Site
So, you've decided to take your site offline. As a developer who's helped many clients through this, my first suggestion is always: don't delete anything. Unpublishing is reversible; deletion is often permanent. Here’s a straightforward way to make your site private.
The most common and user-friendly method is to use a built-in WordPress setting that tells search engines to ignore your site and shows a coming soon page to visitors. Here’s how to do it:
- Log into your WordPress dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Reading.
- Find the section labeled "Site Visibility".
- Select the option that says "Discourage search engines from indexing this site".
- Scroll down and click Save Changes.
This action is a soft unpublish. It doesn't take your site down entirely—someone with a direct link might still access it—but it effectively removes it from search results and tells the world it's not open for business. For a more robust solution, consider installing a maintenance mode plugin. These plugins allow you to display a custom, professional-looking "Coming Soon" or "Under Maintenance" page, which is perfect for hiding a site you're redesigning. This is also a great opportunity to integrate a method for how to take in emails wordpress by adding a simple email signup form to that holding page, allowing you to build anticipation and notify interested visitors when you relaunch.
Before you pull the plug, a word of caution from my experience: always check your data first. If you have an analytics wordpress plugin like MonsterInsights installed, review your traffic reports. You might discover that a particular page is attracting valuable traffic, and you’ll want to preserve its URL structure for your new site. Furthermore, consider the investment you've already made. If you paid a premium wordpress theme price, remember that your license is typically valid forever for that site. Unpublishing doesn't void it; you can use that same theme again when you're ready to go live with a new design.
Need a Hand? WPutopia Can Help
Unpublishing a site might seem simple, but doing it correctly requires a bit of foresight to protect your SEO, preserve your content, and prepare for a future relaunch. If the process feels daunting, or if you'd prefer an expert to handle it—along with ensuring all your plugins and themes are updated and backed up—that's where we come in.
At WPutopia, we provide comprehensive WordPress services to our clients. From routine wordpress maintenance and theme upgrades to custom plugin installation and strategic site management, our goal is to make your WordPress experience seamless and successful. Let us help you manage your online presence with confidence.
