If you’re looking to perform a big update, then you need to put your WordPress site in Maintenance mode. It means your website is unavailable for some required time. WordPress maintenance mode allows to safely perform any maintenance task while making sure that people need access to the website. In this post, we’ll check how easily we can put a WordPress site in Maintenance mode.
LET’S START WITH THE BASICS. WHAT IS WORDPRESS MAINTENANCE MODE?
WordPress maintenance mode is a state that replaces your website with a splash page and shows why it’s offline. On this splash page, you can add estimation when the website is going to be live again. In this process, WordPress use function wp_maintenance and create a .maintenance file that comes with a maintenance message. Later, when the maintenance process completes, WordPress delete the file and usually works.
WHY USE MAINTENANCE MODE?
There are situations where your site needs to set a maintenance mode. Few are listed below:
- Making changes to your website
- Launching a new product or services
- Fixing a bug
- Launching a redesign of a site
- Getting search engine to know if your site is going to launch or is in repair mode
HOW TO SET A WORDPRESS SITE IN MAINTENANCE MODE?
Mainly four methods are used to create the WordPress Maintenance Mode. It includes
- Built-in Maintenance features in WordPress
- Enable Maintenance mode through .htaccess file
- Adding custom code to display a maintenance page.
- Use WordPress maintenance mode plugin.
These methods are used in different ways. Users can choose the best-suited methods by checking their maintenance purpose. Let’s discuss them in brief.
MAINTENANCE FUNCTION IN WORDPRESS
The WordPress maintenance function built-in feature occurs when you update WordPress core or WordPress theme updates. When you run an update, WordPress displays a message in the admin area stating the site has entered maintenance mode. The update does not take longer than a minute but during that minute the site replaced by a splash page like:
It’s a temporary page that only appears when you run updates in WordPress. You can try other methods as well.
CUSTOM CODE TO DISPLAY A MAINTENANCE PAGE
If you don’t want to use the maintenance splash page you can add code to your functions.php file. Use below code snippets and activate your WordPress Maintenance Mode.
During the maintenance process, it creates a new file called .maintenance in the root directory. It means the page is not an error but a notification that shows what’s happening with your WordPress website.
ENABLE MAINTENANCE MODE THROUGH .HTACCESS FILE
To use this method, we need permission to edit the .htaccess file on the server. One can get the file from the root directory. Once you open the file, copy and paste the below code. The code will redirect all web requests to your homepage via the maintenance.html file.
Get a simple maintenance page HTML template online, replace the numbers with your own IP address, and get access to the site.
USE WORDPRESS MAINTENANCE MODE PLUGINS.
You need to inform users and let them know what’s going to happen with your websites. Why your website is offline? The maintenance mode plugins allow building pleasing splash pages from where you can insert email forms and other social media links. However, the method is not effective in terms of business. But with the help of few best maintenance mode plugins available, we can get it to work better. Check them.
ELEMENTOR MAINTENANCE MODE
It’s a versatile page builder page plugin that enables you to design your site on the front-end. Get easy to use maintenance mode and keep the visitor from your site while permitting administrator access.
Features:
- Fast and Responsive
- Display extra information on front-end via coming soon page
- Customize your layout with easy-to-use design modules.
COMING SOON AND MAINTENANCE MODE BY SEEDPROD
It comes with a wealth of customization features available without upgrading to the pro version.
Features:
- Comes with Fully Responsive
- Add a headline, meta description and SEO title
- Add an image and change background colour
- Add custom CSS
COMING SOON AND MAINTENANCE MODE
It comes highly customizable and offers a countdown feature.
Features:
- Add an SEO meta description and title
- Upload a business logo
- Add a link to social media accounts
Once you activate and customized maintenance mode plugins, it will work as a great marketing tool. Moreover, it will help to give your website a good look and work out on the backend as well. If none of the above options works well for you, then don’t worry, you’ll always get additional options online.
Use dedicated maintenance plugins to increase conversions. The only hard part is to determine which plugins suits you best. We at myWPguys is here for you to give a new look to your site. Our experts help you to prevent your website from getting stuck in maintenance mode. Check out our WordPress Maintenance website plans.