Whether you are building a new site or working on an existing one, you sometimes need to show visitors a temporary page. Doing it the wrong way can hurt your search rankings.
Coming soon or maintenance?
- Coming soon: the site is not launched yet. You want to collect emails and build anticipation.
- Maintenance: the site exists and is temporarily unavailable. You want search engines to come back later without dropping your pages.
The SEO detail that matters: HTTP 503
During maintenance, the page should answer with a 503 Service Unavailable status and a Retry-After header. It tells search engines the situation is temporary. A normal 200 page saying “under maintenance” could be indexed in place of your real content.
What a good coming soon page includes
- Your logo and a clear sentence about what is coming.
- A countdown to the launch date.
- An email field to be notified at launch, with spam protection.
- Social and contact links.
- Pages that stay open, like your legal notice and privacy policy.
Keep working while visitors wait
Logged-in editors should see the real site. For clients, a secret preview link avoids creating accounts for them.
Setting it up
Soonpage offers three modes (off, coming soon, maintenance with 503 + Retry-After), a modern design with gradients or your own image, a countdown, email collection with CSV export, a secret client link and a reminder in the admin bar. See the live coming soon page.
After launch
Use an announcement bar to tell visitors about the new site, and email everyone who subscribed.
Coming soon pages that collect leads
A coming soon page can do more than wait. Use the weeks before launch to build an audience:
- Email signup with a clear promise: “Be the first to know, and get 10% off on launch day”.
- Social links so people can follow your progress.
- A countdown if you have a firm launch date.
- A short description of what you are building, in plain text, so search engines can understand the page.
On launch day, email your list first. These are your warmest visitors.
Maintenance mode done right
Use maintenance mode for short interventions: updates, migrations, a redesign going live. Schedule them at quiet times, display an estimated return time, and give a way to reach you for urgent requests. Keep logged-in administrators able to see the site so you can test everything before switching back. If the work will take more than a day or two, consider building on a staging copy instead of keeping the live site closed.
SEO checklist before you switch it on
- The page returns an HTTP 503 status with a “Retry-After” header during maintenance.
- Search engine bots are not given a 200 status on an empty page.
- Your sitemap and robots.txt are not changed.
- The maintenance period is as short as possible.
- After switching back, you check a few pages in Google Search Console with URL inspection.
After the launch
Once the site is live, submit your sitemap in Search Console, check that every important page is indexable and fast, and set up the basics: opening hours, contact options and social proof. See the essential plugins for a local business website, and try the SoonPage demo.
Frequently asked questions
Does maintenance mode hurt SEO?
Not if the page returns a 503 status with a Retry-After header, which tells search engines to come back later.
Can I keep working on the site?
Yes. Logged-in editors see the real site, and clients can use a secret preview link.
Can I collect emails before launch?
Yes, with a built-in form, spam protection and CSV export.