Coming Soon vs Maintenance Mode: What’s the Difference (Explained)

Are you wondering if there is a difference between coming soon and maintenance modes?

The answer is: Yes. They are both used for different purposes, and search engines treat coming soon mode differently from maintenance mode.

In this article, we will explain the difference between coming soon vs maintenance mode so that you can choose the best option for your needs.

What is Coming Soon Mode vs. Maintenance Mode, and Why Does It Matter?

The coming soon mode is used when your WordPress site has not yet been launched. On the other hand, maintenance mode is used when your website is temporarily offline for maintenance.

It’s easy to get these 2 modes confused because they are similar in appearance, and both of them are used to temporarily make a website offline.

Several WordPress plugins, such as SeedProd, let you put your site into either coming soon mode or maintenance mode. However, you may not be sure about the difference.

It’s extremely important to use each mode correctly because choosing the wrong option can harm your WordPress site’s SEO rankings.

When to Use a Coming Soon Page

You should use a coming soon page after registering for a domain name but before you have finished creating your website.

A coming soon page lets you generate buzz about your upcoming site before launching it. Plus, it allows Google to start sending you visitors.

It’s also best practice to have an email newsletter signup form on your coming soon page. This allows people to get an email when your site goes live and also helps you get a head start on building an email list.

You can easily create great-looking coming-soon pages with SeedProd.

It is the best WordPress landing page builder on the market that comes with a drag-and-drop builder and premade templates, allowing you to create an amazing coming soon page for your site.

Let’s take a look at how to create a coming soon page in WordPress.

How to Create a Coming Soon Page

To create a coming soon page, you first need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: We are using the SeedProd pro version for our tutorial because it offers more customization features and templates, but you can also use SeedProd’s free plan.

Upon activation, you should be prompted for your license key. You will find this in your account area on the SeedProd website. Enter the key and click the ‘Verify Key’ button:

After that, you can visit the SeedProd » Landing Pages screen from your WordPress dashboard.

Here, click the ‘Set up a Coming Soon Page’ button to start the process.

This will direct you to the ‘Choose a New Page Template’ screen, where you have to pick a template for your coming soon page.

There are over 150 different premade SeedProd templates to choose from.

All you have to do is hover over a template and click the orange tick mark button.

You will now be taken to SeedProd’s drag-and-drop page builder. Here, you will notice a coming soon preview on the right with a block panel on the left.

Go ahead and change anything you want by easily dragging and dropping blocks from the left column.

For instance, you can drag and drop standard blocks for text and images or choose Advanced blocks to add a countdown timer, contact form, icons, and more.

Besides that, there are options to change the font, background image, text and color of the button, and more.

For detailed instructions, you may want to see our tutorial on how to create coming soon pages in WordPress with SeedProd.

If you would like to integrate your coming soon form with your email marketing service, then simply go to the ‘Connect’ tab at the top and select your email marketing service.

You then need to follow the on-screen instructions to connect your coming soon page with your email service.

Once you’re happy with your coming soon page’s design, head over to the ‘Page Settings’ tab at the top. After that, click on the Page Status toggle and switch the status from Draft to Publish.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button at the top and then exit the landing page builder.

Next, you’ll need to go to SeedProd » Landing Pages from your WordPress dashboard and click the toggle under the Coming Soon Mode to make your page ‘Active.’

Your coming soon page is now live.

To view it, log out of your website and visit any page.

When to Use Maintenance Mode

You can use maintenance mode if you need to briefly take your site offline for changes or updates.

For instance, you may want to use maintenance mode while changing WordPress themes. This ensures that your site functions correctly and looks good with the new theme.

Another good time to use maintenance mode is to add an online store to your site. You can leave your website online but put your store into maintenance mode.

Maintenance mode lets search engines know that your site is currently down. It does this by returning the header code 503. That way, your site’s SEO won’t be affected by downtime.

It’s good practice to let users know that your site will be back soon, too. You can do this by putting a message on your maintenance page. You might want to add an email form so they can get an email alert once your site is back up.

Tip: When you update plugins, themes, or core WordPress, your site will automatically go into maintenance mode for a few seconds. If your site gets stuck in this mode, we have instructions on fixing the WordPress maintenance mode error.

How to Put Your Site in Maintenance Mode

You’ll need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin to put your site in maintenance mode. For instructions, see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can head over to the SeedProd » Landing Pages screen from your WordPress admin panel and then click the ‘Set up a Maintenance Mode Page’ button.

Next, you can select a template for your maintenance mode page.

SeedProd offers numerous templates to get started. If you are still confused, then you can see our showcase of maintenance page ideas that you can use on your WordPress site.

After that, you can customize the page in the SeedProd landing page builder.

Simply drag and drop the blocks that you want to add to the template and edit the text, font, size, layout, color, and more. For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to put your WordPress site in maintenance mode.

You can now add an email marketing service under the ‘Connect’ tab.

Simply choose a service and follow the on-screen instructions to set it up.

Next, head over to the ‘Page Settings’ tab.

Here, click the Page Status toggle to Publish your maintenance mode page.

Once that’s done, go ahead and click the ‘Save’ button and exit the page builder.

When you are ready to put your site into maintenance mode, simply go to the SeedProd » Landing Pages in your WordPress admin area and then make the maintenance mode page ‘Active.’

Remember, maintenance mode should only be used when your site is down for maintenance. If you have not yet launched your site, use the coming soon mode instead.

We hope this article helped you understand the difference between the coming soon vs. maintenance mode. You may also want to check out our expert picks for the must-have WordPress plugins for your website and our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

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