How to Unpublish Your WordPress Site on GoDaddy

As a WordPress site owner on GoDaddy, you may find yourself in a position where you need to unpublish your site. This can happen for a variety of reasons, such as finishing the development stage, redirecting to a different platform, low traffic, or testing new features before going live. Whatever the reason, there are various ways to unpublish your site on GoDaddy.

Why You Might Want to Unpublish Your WordPress Site on GoDaddy

There can be several reasons why you might decide to unpublish your site:

• Your site is under development and not ready to be live yet.
• You’ve built a different website on a new platform.
• Your site has low traffic and you want to consider other options.
• You want to try out new features without publishing them to the world.

However, note that deleting your site on GoDaddy will result in the loss of all data, content, and settings. Thus, ensuring to back up your site before unpublishing is crucial for future restorations.

Unpublishing Your WordPress Site on GoDaddy

There are several ways to unpublish your WordPress site on GoDaddy. Here are a few methods you can try.

Method 1: Adding a Coming Soon Page

You can add a “Coming Soon” page to your site to hide it from the public while it’s still under development. A plugin called “SeedProd” can help you create a page under construction with a custom message about maintenance or redesigning. Similarly, you can activate this page to unpublish your website temporarily. Visitors will see the Coming Soon page instead of the website.

Method 2: Limiting Access to Your Site

The other approach to unpublishing is limiting access to your site while still working on it. You can install a plugin called “WP Maintenance Mode” that allows you to create a page with password protection. Only people with the password can access your site, keeping the site concealed from the general public.

Method 3: Delete Your Site on GoDaddy

The most extreme method to unpublish your WordPress site on GoDaddy is to delete the site. However, it should only be done after backing up your site’s essential data, content, and settings. GoDaddy provides backup services to its customers, making it easy to utilize its tools for site backups. To delete a site on GoDaddy, log in to your account, click “Web Hosting” under the “Products,” select “Manage,” click the “Trash” icon, and confirm “Delete”. However, once deleted, the site cannot be restored unless there’s a backup.

Final Thoughts

Unpublishing a WordPress site on GoDaddy requires backing up your site before proceeding with the unpublishing method of your choice. Different methods, such as adding a coming soon page, limiting access, or deleting the site altogether, can be used to cater to various needs.