If you are in the process of creating a website, but it’s not yet ready to see the light of day, you shouldn’t wait to start attracting users. A perfect solution is to create a coming-soon or an under-construction page. This way, you can let users know something is coming and that they should keep in touch.
What is a coming soon or an under construction page?
If you are making a website and you want to be active even before it’s published, you can make a coming-soon page. A coming-soon page informs the visitors that your website is going to be ready to launch soon. It does this by displaying a message, such as “coming soon,” “are you ready,” or “stay tuned.”
A coming-soon page also hides your website from the public, allowing you to work on it privately. This way, your users won’t see a damaged or unfinished page, which would harm your website’s reputation. This can be used before finishing a website and if you need to adjust or change an existing one. In this case, it is called an under-construction or maintenance page.
Why are coming soon and under construction pages useful?
Coming-soon pages are used for creating a connection with users even before the website is up. Under-construction pages are used for staying in touch with users while the website is down. This way, you can keep your users satisfied and up-to-date.
The main reasons for creating these pages are boosting the websites’ SEO, creating hype around your website, and growing your email list.
Boosting website SEO
If you make a coming-soon page, your website’s domain will be accessible on the Internet, but the actual website will stay hidden. Users will see only the coming-soon landing page you carefully created for them. By setting up a coming soon page, you can start working on your website’s SEO even before it launches.
You can notify search engines about your website being temporarily down, so it doesn’t harm your SEO.
Creating anticipation
Using a coming-soon page can also be useful for creating hype around your website. By running a pre-launch campaign, you can get future users excited about your products or services. This way, you can build up interest for the upcoming launch and start growing your user base from the first day.
Growing a subscriber list
Furthermore, you can use a coming-soon page for growing your email list. This way, visitors can leave their email addresses so you can notify them once the website is up and running. You can stay in touch with your audience and provide them with newsletters.
Other reasons
However, these pages can be used for reasons different than launching or maintaining. You can take advantage of them while dealing with the server or administrative issues, changing the websites’ theme, or trying out new plugins.
They even proved to be useful for unpredictable situations, for example, if your website gets hacked and you need to fix it. This way, you don’t need to worry about problems affecting your websites’ performance.
How to make a coming soon or under construction page in WordPress
You can make a coming-soon or under-construction page without writing any code. The first step is to install a coming-soon or under-construction plugin. You can choose between several different plugins, and we are going to list the best ones. After you activate the plugin in the website admin panel, you can create a landing page.
You will still see your website as usual, but visitors will only see the landing page with a custom message on it.
A landing page is what your users will see when they visit your website. It informs them that the website is temporarily unavailable, but it will be back. You can create the landing page using an intuitive page constructor. The page constructor is pretty straightforward and easy to use. With a good coming-soon page, you can stay in touch with your users.
You can get really creative with making a landing page. Most of the coming-soon and under-construction plugins in WordPress allow you to create impressive background graphics, videos, or animations. You can even add a countdown timer and let your users know exactly when the website will be back.
Now that you know why are coming-soon and under-construction pages important and how to make them take a look at the 7 best coming-soon WordPress plugins.
Top 7 coming soon WordPress plugins
WordPress offers a whole variety of coming soon and maintenance plugins, each with a different set of features. Here is a list of the 7 most useful coming-soon plugins to help you choose the one that best fits your needs.
1. Under Construction
With the Under Construction plugin, you can set up a coming-soon, under-construction, or maintenance page. It is very simple and easy to use, even if you have zero experience in coding. It will take you no time to create a brilliant and efficient landing page while your website is getting ready.
This plugin supports more than 100 languages and can automatically translate your coming-soon page.
If you choose the PRO version of the plugin, you will be able to use more than 50 extra features. They include over a million high-resolution images, drag and drop builder, traffic tracking, and many more. You can check out design examples on the plugin’s website.
One amazing thing about this plugin is that you can make your website accessible for users with disabilities. By partnering up with the AI service accessiBe, they have made it possible to create websites available to everyone.
2. Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode
Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode is a great choice for starting a new website or when your website is not ready for the public eye. Using this plugin, you can quickly and easily create a coming-soon, maintenance, or launch page. It is very adjustable and can work with any WordPress theme or plugin. Like the first plugin on the list, it also offers the possibility to make your website accessible to everyone.
While creating a landing page, you can adjust every detail depending on your needs and preferences. The plugin is integrated with Mailchimp API, which means you can gather emails, leads, and subscriptions from visitors. Of course, all of this is completely compatible with General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR.
This way, you can grow your user base even before the website is up.
This plugin offers a variety of features, including Instagram filters, content animations, over 800 Google fonts, and visitor tracking, just to name a few. The PRO version offers additional features, such as SEO preview and analysis tools, more than 200 themes to choose from, over 2 million premium images, and more. You can even make the normal website visible for the search engines while leaving the coming-soon page available for the visitors.
3. Maintenance
When your website is temporarily unavailable to the users, you can set up a maintenance page. With this Maintenance plugin, you can easily close your WordPress website, set up a “503 Service temporarily unavailable” message, and create a substitute page. This page will be visible to visitors and can be fully customized to suit your preferences.
This plugin offers more than 200 pre-made themes that can be fully adjusted. You can select the background image, stretch it to full-screen or blur it. You can also upload your websites’ logo, choose colors for every aspect of the page, and add text.
The plugin supports almost all caching plugins, Google Analytics, and acessiBe.
The plugin is teamed up with the Security Ninja plugin, which will take care of the website security. With it, you can instantly activate more than 50 security tests and scans. After the scanning, you will get an accurate security report. It even allows you to fix all the security problems with just one click.
4. Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode Page
This user-friendly plugin will allow you to create incredible animated coming-soon, under-construction, and maintenance pages. Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode Page includes features such as 16 background slider animations, backgrounds with pattern overlay and opacity, more than 300 Google fonts, a countdown timer, and many more.
All of its features are premium-like, and the best part is that it’s completely free.
The plugin is compatible with any WordPress theme, and it can adapt to every device. Its responsive design allows you to adjust every section of the page. You can even choose to turn off or turn on any segment. You can easily set up a subscription or sign-up forms to get in touch with your visitors.
One of the best features of this plugin is the live preview option. This option allows you to see what your coming-soon or maintenance page will look like upon release. You can even do this without logging out or switching to a different Internet browser.
5. Site Offline Or Coming Soon Or Maintenance Mode
This plugin offers you a retina-ready template that has a built-in countdown. With it, you can create a coming soon or maintenance page in a matter of minutes. It is easily manageable, flexible, and efficient.
This plugin works with any WordPress theme, and it supports HTML5. It includes features such as logo customization, unlimited color schemes, contact info display, cross-browser support, and many more. You can integrate up to four social media profiles, use live preview, and activate the page with just one click.
If you opt for the PRO version, you can enjoy amazing features like background slideshows, YouTube video background, auto-launch, subscribers list, and so on. It also includes various integrated newsletters and more than 500 Google fonts to choose from.
You can even set up an About Us page, Service page, or Team and Contact Info sections. It also allows you to incorporate Google Maps on your page.
6. Coming Soon, Under Construction & Maintenance Mode by Dazzler
This plugin is ideal for managing maintenance, coming-soon, and under-construction pages. Its modern design is responsive, flexible, and easy to set up.
ZYou can customize every aspect of the page you are creating, including title, description, background image and color, font size, contact info, and more.
The plugin is fully SEO compatible. It allows you to add your Google tracking code and your meta info. You can also add SEO title and description to optimize your websites’ rankings even while it’s down.
The PRO version includes advanced options such as additional pages, 8 newsletters services, high-quality design templates, Google Maps, background slideshow or video, countdown timer, and many more. You can drag-and-drop more than 16 social media profiles so your users know where to find you while the website is down.
The plugin is compatible with any device.
7. Coming soon and Maintenance mode
This plugin helps you create an entertaining coming-soon or maintenance landing page. It features custom branding and logo, connects with social media, and also has a very customizable landing page. You can turn off the plugin for specific IP addresses, enable or disable search robots, and set up meta keywords and descriptions.
The plugin is compatible with every WordPress theme.
You can install the basic version for free or upgrade to the PRO version for more advanced features. They include video background and animation effects, sending emails to subscribers on the email list, numerous creative countdown designs, upload your own images for social media buttons, and many more.
This tool is ideal for showing your visitors that you are in the process of making your website better.
Don’t let down your users
By creating a coming-soon, under-construction, or maintenance page, you can let your users know that your website is currently unavailable. They are a great choice whether you are developing a new website, fixing an existing one, facing server issues, or just need some time to improve your page.
A coming-soon or under-construction page presents you with an easy way of maintaining the relationship with your users. You can inform them of the timing of your comeback and how to be in touch while you’re away. This way, you won’t lose customers, and you will keep your website’s online presence.
Setting up a coming-soon page is a perfect way to keep your websites’ reputation high. It works great as a promotional strategy and saves you from losing marketing opportunities. While they are waiting for the website launch, users will want to find out more about it. A coming-soon page can provide them with all the information they need briefly and concisely.
So, next time you are preparing something new or taking some time to try out different solutions, remember to use one of these useful plugins.
