How To Unpublish WordPress Site: Step by Step Guide

Need to unpublish or take down your WordPress website? Whether it’s for maintenance, rebranding or privacy concerns, knowing how to unpublish your pages is key. Once you unpublish the pages, the site will no longer be accessible so make sure to back up your content first.

So, how to unpublish WordPress pages? And how to bring it back when you need it? This guide will walk you through the steps and considerations.

Unpublishing 101

Unpublishing a WordPress site or individual pages/posts is a common task for WordPress users especially when updating content, making major edits or site maintenance. There are many reasons to unpublish a WordPress site, including rebranding, major updates, or taking a break.

Unpublishing a WordPress site can be temporary or permanent and it’s important to know the different methods to manage your website content. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced WordPress user, knowing how to unpublish a WordPress site or individual pages/posts is a valuable skill to have.

Why Unpublish Your WordPress Website

• Temporary Maintenance or Updates

Sometimes, major updates or WP or WooCommerce maintenance tasks require taking your site offline to avoid user experience issues or data loss. Unpublishing a live post can prevent broken links and SEO impact.

• Rebranding or Redesigning

A major rebranding or redesign might require a temporary shutdown to ensure a smooth transition to the new look. Different hosting providers may have different methods to unpublish a site, so it’s important to know the tools available with your hosting service.

• Privacy Concerns or Content Review

You may need to address privacy concerns or review content, and need the site to be temporarily unavailable.

ProCoders’ tip: to avoid unpublishing your site frequently, make sure you have both Staging and Production versions with the ability to switch between the two quickly. This will help you upgrade the site seamlessly.

Before You Unpublish

Backup the Data

Before you make any changes, make sure you have a full backup of your site. This is crucial.

Also, manage all your posts effectively before backing up data to make the process smooth and organized.

Notify Your Users or Set Up a Temporary Page

Inform your users about the downtime and consider setting up a temporary page to keep them updated about the site. Using a dropdown menu can help manage multiple pages when setting up a temporary page.

WordPress Dashboard

To unpublish an entire WordPress site or its pages/posts, you need to access the dashboard. The WordPress admin dashboard is the control center of your WordPress site where you can manage everything about your site, including content, settings, and plugins.

To access the dashboard, simply log in to your WordPress site using your username and password. Once logged in, you’ll see the WordPress dashboard where you can navigate to different sections, including Posts, Pages, Settings, and Plugins.

From here, you can manage your website content, including unpublishing individual pages or posts or the entire WordPress site.

How to Temporarily Unpublish a WordPress Site?

Using the Built-in ‘Coming Soon’ or ‘Maintenance Mode’ Features

WP has built-in features like ‘Coming Soon’ or ‘Maintenance Mode’ to take your site offline for short periods. If you need a custom page to notify your users you can hire a WordPress development company like ProCoders.

Also using a maintenance mode plugin is a straightforward solution to temporarily unpublish a WordPress site and show a custom message to visitors while the site is offline.

How to change WordPress pages During Rebranding:

During a major rebranding or redesign you might need to unpublish or modify certain pages or blog posts.

This can be done by accessing the ‘Pages’ section in your WordPress dashboard where you can edit, unpublish or completely revamp individual pages to match your new branding.

Plugins That Can Put Multiple WordPress Pages or an Entire Site on Hold

There are several plugins available in the WP ecosystem that can put your entire site on hold. These plugins are useful when you need to put your site on maintenance, redesign, or major updates, and need to restrict public access.

• WP Maintenance Mode: This plugin allows you to create a maintenance page with a countdown timer and a subscription form to keep your visitors updated about the site’s status and estimated return.
• Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode by SeedProd: Highly customizable, it offers options to design coming soon or maintenance pages with email subscription forms, social media integration, and SEO settings.
• Under Construction Page: Ideal for quickly setting up under construction, coming soon, or maintenance pages. It has a drag-and-drop builder so you can create pages without coding knowledge.
• Maintenance: This simple plugin allows you to create a maintenance mode page. It has options to customize the look and feel, add user login access, and more.
• Elementor Maintenance Mode: For Elementor users, this feature within the plugin allows you to design maintenance pages with the Elementor page builder interface,which has extensive design capabilities.

You can also turn multiple live pages into drafts using bulk actions, which can save time during site redesigns or migrations by allowing you to manage content without individual page edits.

Managing Individual Pages and Posts

Managing individual pages and posts is a part of WordPress site management. You can unpublish individual pages or posts by switching them to draft status, using bulk actions, or setting them to private mode.

To unpublish a single WordPress page or post, go to the Posts or Pages section in the WordPress admin dashboard, hover over the page or post, and click Edit. From here, you can change the post status to Draft, Private, or Password Protected.

You can also use bulk actions to unpublish multiple pages or posts at once. This is useful when you need to make changes to multiple pages or posts.

How to Unpublish a Site on WordPress from Search Engines

Adjusting the ‘Search Engine Visibility’ Settings in WP

You can hide your site from engines by adjusting the ‘Search Engine Visibility’ settings in WordPress.

This option is found under Settings > Reading and allows you to discourage engines from indexing your site. It’s useful for development or private sites, but remember it’s not foolproof, and some engines may still index your site.

Also, the search engine visibility option is important for content visibility, especially when unpublishing posts or entire sites, and should be considered for its SEO and user experience implications.

The Implications of Search Engine Unpublishing on SEO

Removing your pages from search engines can significantly impact your SEO as it stops the indexing of your content. This means your site won’t show up in search results and will reduce traffic and visibility.

When you’re ready to republish, it may take time for the engines to re-index your resource and restore your previous rankings.

Consider using a temporary ‘noindex’ tag instead, which tells search engines not to index the page but keeps the link in their database. SEO efforts when unpublishing content are important to preserve your site’s SEO value and minimize the impact on rankings.

Make Your Site Private

Using Privacy Plugins to Restrict Access

Several plugins allow you to make your website private. These plugins range from simple solutions that restrict your entire site to specific users to more complex systems that offer varying levels of access based on user roles.

Options like ‘Restricted Site Access’ or ‘Members’ can be configured to limit site access to logged-in users or redirect unauthenticated visitors to a login or a custom page.

Website admins can control visibility by switching posts to draft or private mode so only website admins and editors have access.

Create a Members-Only or Password-Protected Website

For a more exclusive website, consider converting it into a members-only platform or using password protection.

This can be done by setting up a membership plugin like ‘MemberPress’ or ‘Paid Memberships Pro’, which provides tools to create subscription levels, member profiles, and restricted content areas.

Alternatively, use WordPress’ built-in password protection for individual posts or pages, which is a simpler option for smaller platforms or sections that require limited access.

Membership pages not only make your site exclusive but also help you collect email addresses, as non-members must sign up to access exclusive content.

Can You Unpublish a WordPress Site Completely?

Steps to Delete Your Resource

To permanently delete your WP site, you must first backup your data in case you might need it in the future.

Then, if you’re using WordPress.com, go to the Tools section of your dashboard and select ‘Delete Site.’

For a self-hosted site, you’ll need to delete your WordPress files through your hosting account’s file manager or FTP and drop the associated database via your hosting control panel.

Managing your hosting account is important for these tasks as it allows you to access features like site deletion and maintenance mode.

Before Taking This Irreversible Action

Before permanently deleting your website, consider the irreversible nature of this action.

Make sure you have a full backup of your site’s data, including posts, pages, images, and database.

• Consider the SEO impact, such as lost rankings and broken links.
• Inform any stakeholders or users associated with your website about this decision.
• Even if your site is unpublished, its content may still be accessible through third-party archives on the web.

Republishing Your WordPress Website

To switch a published post to draft status for updates or unpublishing due to outdated content, navigate to the post in your WordPress dashboard, click ‘Edit’, and then change the status from ‘Published’ to ‘Draft’.

This way you can make necessary updates without affecting your live site.

How to Bring Your Site Back Online After Unpublishing

To bring your site back online after unpublishing, first ensure your hosting and domain are active. If you had previously discouraged engines from indexing your website (via Settings > Reading) revert this change.

Then use your backups to restore your WordPress files and database. Finally, reconfigure any necessary settings such as permalinks, widgets, and plugins.

When archiving content, consider using direct links instead of unpublishing it to maintain SEO benefits and allow search engines to index these pages while keeping them hidden from public view.

Before Going Live Again

Before going live, perform a thorough check of your resource. This includes ensuring all pages and links are working correctly, checking all plugins and themes are updated and compatible, and confirming your website is responsive and works across different browsers and devices.

Also re-evaluate your SEO settings and submit your sitemap to the engines if necessary. Lastly, inform your audience of your return through social media or email newsletters.

For event-related pages schedule unpublishing to automatically remove them after the event to prevent outdated information from affecting user experience and SEO.

Conclusion

Unpublishing your WP site whether for maintenance or forever requires careful planning and execution. By following this guide you can ensure a smooth transition for your site whatever the reason.

Remember to consider the implications of unpublishing especially in terms of SEO and user experience and take necessary measures to minimize the impact.

When you unpublish your WordPress site you must think about the SEO and user experience to minimize the disruption. With this you can manage your WordPress site visibility more easily and less scary.