Procédure
Service concerned : WordPress
Panel concerned : WordPress administration
Level : beginner
Maintenance mode lets you temporarily display a dedicated page to your visitors while you make changes to your WordPress site. This way, you can continue working on your site without showing incomplete or in-progress pages.
In this guide, we use the free Maintenance plugin, developed by WebFactory.
Maintenance mode does not secure your WordPress site. It is used to temporarily replace the public display of the site with a page informing visitors that maintenance is in progress.
Install the Maintenance plugin
From the WordPress administration area, go to Plugins > Add Plugin.
In the search field, type Maintenance.
Several plugins may have a similar name. Find the Maintenance plugin whose author is WebFactory, then click Install Now.
Once the installation is complete, click Activate.
The plugin then adds a Maintenance menu in the WordPress administration area.
Customize the content of the maintenance page
The plugin provides an editor that lets you modify the page shown to visitors.
From the Maintenance menu, open the plugin settings, then go to Design > Layout.
The center of the screen shows the different elements that make up your maintenance page, for example the main content or the footer.
To modify a text:
- hover over the block you want to edit;
- click the pencil icon to edit the module;
- modify the text in the Text field;
- click Save changes to save your changes.
For example, you can replace the text with:
Site temporarily unavailable
We are currently making some changes to our site. It will be accessible again shortly. Thank you for your patience.
You can repeat the process for the different blocks on the page.
The plugin also lets you change the appearance of the page from the Themes, Design and Background sections. These customizations are optional: the default page can be used as is if you simply want to inform your visitors that maintenance is in progress.
Enable HTTP code 503
When your site is temporarily placed in maintenance mode, you can let search engines know that this downtime is temporary thanks to the HTTP 503 Service Unavailable code.
In the plugin settings, click SEO.
Then enable the option:
Enable 503 (Service Unavailable) status code to discourage Search Engine crawlers
The HTTP 503 code tells search engines that your site is temporarily unavailable. It is especially suitable when the site is already indexed and you are temporarily putting it into maintenance mode.
Activate maintenance mode
When your page is ready, you can put the site into maintenance mode directly from the top bar of the WordPress administration area.
Hover over or click Maintenance, then set Maintenance mode to ON.
Maintenance mode can also be activated from the plugin interface using the Maintenance button located at the top of the page.
From that moment on, visitors who are not logged in to WordPress will see the maintenance page instead of your site.
You can continue working normally in the WordPress administration area.
Check that maintenance mode is working
When you are logged in to WordPress, your site may continue to display normally. This allows you to work on your pages while keeping maintenance active for visitors.
To see what visitors actually see, you can:
- open your site in a private browsing window;
- or log out of WordPress, then open your site normally.
In both cases, the maintenance page should appear instead of your usual site.
If the maintenance page appears when you view the site without being logged in to WordPress, maintenance mode is working correctly.
Put the site back online
Once your changes are complete, return to the WordPress administration area.
In the top bar, open the Maintenance menu, then set Maintenance mode to OFF.
You can also disable maintenance from the Maintenance button available in the plugin interface.
Then check your site in a private browsing window or after logging out of WordPress.
Your usual site should be displayed again.
Common issues
I activated maintenance mode, but I still see my site normally
If you are logged in to WordPress, this is usually normal. The plugin allows you to keep viewing your site while visitors see the maintenance page.
Open the site in a private browsing window or log out of WordPress to check its real display.
The maintenance page does not appear
Check that Maintenance mode is indeed set to ON.
If your site uses a cache system, also clear the WordPress cache before testing again while logged out.
I disabled maintenance mode, but the page is still visible
Check that Maintenance mode is indeed set to OFF.
Then clear your browser cache and, if your site uses a caching plugin, the WordPress cache. Open the site again in a private browsing window or after logging out.
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