Perplexed on Unpublishing Your WordPress Site?

If you are in the process of rebranding your online presence or no longer want to maintain your WordPress site, you may be considering unpublishing it. This course of action will completely remove your website from the internet, rendering it unavailable to any visitors. Follow our straightforward guide to easily unpublish your site and begin creating a dynamic new web presence.

Why Unpublish Your WordPress Site?

The reasons for unpublishing a WordPress site can vary greatly. You may need to remove an outdated or irrelevant site to make room for a fresh one. Perhaps you are planning to rebrand and need to take your existing site down before launching the new brand. Whatever your motivators, unpublishing your WordPress site is a relatively simple process that we can help you with.

Steps to Unpublish Your WordPress Site

The process of unpublishing your WordPress site can be broken down into four main steps:

1) Installation of a Coming Soon Plugin

To begin, you will need to install a “coming soon” plugin onto your WordPress site. This plugin allows you to display a temporary message to site visitors while you work on your new site. We recommend the SeedProd plugin as it is easy to configure and is available for free. To install this plugin, simply navigate to your WordPress site dashboard, click on Plugins > Add New, and type “coming soon” in the search bar.

2) Configure the Plugin

After installing the coming soon plugin, you need to configure it to display your custom message. To do this, go to “Settings” on your WordPress dashboard, then select either “Coming Soon Page” or “Maintenance Mode”. Here, you can customize your message, select a theme, add background images, and select other settings such as allowing visitors to bypass the coming soon page.

3) Enable the Coming Soon Page

After configuring the coming soon plugin, you can activate your coming soon page. To do this, navigate to the “Status & Visibility” tab and click the checkbox that says “Enable Coming Soon Mode”. This setting will activate your custom message page, and anyone who tries to access your site will see your coming soon page instead of your website.

4) Disable Your Site

The final step to unpublish your WordPress site is to disable it from being viewable by search engines like Google or Bing. Disabling your site from being crawled will remove it from their search results. To do this, go to “Settings” and select “Reading”. Under “Search Engine Visibility,” check the box that says “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”.

Conclusion

In conclusion, unpublishing your WordPress site may seem daunting, especially if you have limited web development experience. However, by following the straightforward steps outlined in this guide, you can confidently take down your outdated or unneeded WordPress site and start creating an exciting new web presence. If you need further assistance unpublishing your WordPress site or any other digital needs, please reach out to us.