Building a website takes time. During this period, it can be smart to drum up some interest in what you’re offering. However, the problem lies in how to achieve this when you have nothing to show visitors. This is where a WordPress ‘Coming Soon’ page can help you.
In a nutshell, a Coming Soon page can help you tell the world that something new and exciting is around the corner. For example, it can be landing page to collect leads, signal new areas on your site, and much more. Plus, Coming Soon pages are pretty easy to build, in most cases.
In this article, we’re going to talk a bit more about what Coming Soon pages are and when to use them. Then we’ll show you what elements to include in yours and how to build it. Let’s begin!
What a WordPress Coming Soon page is (and when to use one)
Before we go any further, let’s talk about the difference between Coming Soon and maintenance pages. The latter tells visitors that your website – or part of it – is currently undergoing technical difficulties:
In some cases, people also use maintenance pages when they’re making aesthetic changes to their sites, which is also valid. In contrast, Coming Soon pages are used when working on a new project. For example, you can create a WordPress Coming Soon page to drum up interest before you launch a website:
If you’re planning on adding new features to an existing site, using a Coming Soon page also makes more sense than a maintenance page. However, there are no hard and fast rules about when you can and can’t use a Coming Soon page, and it’s ultimately judged by the specific situation you’re in.
It’s worth noting that in most cases, it makes more sense to use a staging copy of your website to work on new pages or features. That way, you can publish them once they’re ready without any ‘downtime’. This being said, there’s less opportunity to raise interest or collect leads.
The elements your WordPress Coming Soon page should include
Coming Soon pages tend to be rather straightforward, both from a design and functional perspective. In most cases, they contain just a handful of elements, such as:
- A “coming soon” message, albeit with custom wording.
- An estimate of how long it might take for the project to go live, potentially using a countdown timer.
- A sign-up form, so you can collect leads passively during development.
- Links to your website’s social media profiles.
At the very least, your Coming Soon page should include a message mentioning that visitors should be on the lookout for something new. The other elements are arguably secondary, although the ones we mentioned before are ideal for a WordPress Coming Soon page.
How to create a Coming Soon page in WordPress (3 steps)
There are a thousand ways to go about creating a page for your website. However, since we’re talking about WordPress, there are plugins you can use to help you get a Coming Soon page up and running faster. Let’s talk about what those are and how to use them!
1. Find a suitable tool to set up your Coming Soon page
There are a lot of Coming Soon plugins for WordPress. However, one of our favorites is called Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode:
As you may have guessed, this can help you set up both Coming Soon and maintenance pages, depending on your situation. Of course, the main functionality is that you can create a Coming Soon page, and enable it anytime you want. It includes some simple tools to help you design the page and even customize it using CSS.
At this point, install and activate the plugin, then move onto step number two. However, if you want to compare some alternatives, we also recommend the Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode and Coming Soon, Under Construction & Maintenance Page plugins (pardon the mouthful!).
2. Configure your WordPress Coming Soon page
Once you’ve installed the plugin, you’ll see a new SeedProd tab on your dashboard. In this area, head to the Settings section. You’ll find myriad options here, but for now, jump to the Design tab.
Here, you can configure the way your WordPress Coming Soon page will look. A good starting point is to set a background color or an image:
Further down, there are more settings to help ensure your background is responsive, among other display settings. You can play with these and use the Live Preview tab at the top of the screen to check out how they look.
Keep scrolling down, and you’ll see a Text section where you can configure the colors of your Coming Soon page’s text:
At the bottom of the page, you’ll also find a way to add custom CSS to your page. Feel free to tweak these settings as you see fit, then move over to the Content tab. Once you’re there, scroll down to the Page Settings section, which is where the magic happens.
Here you can set a logo, headline, and the content for your WordPress Coming Soon page, using a simple editor:
Take some time now to consider what you want your Coming Soon page to say – when you’re done, save the changes and move on to step number three.
Step #3: Enable the Coming Soon page
The final step is to enable your WordPress Coming Soon page. You can do this from the Seedprod > Settings > Content screen. At the top, there’s a General section:
Click on the Enable Coming Soon Mode option and save the changes. Your Coming Soon page should now be live, but you won’t see a difference when browsing to the front end.
However, when visitors drop by, they’ll see your Coming Soon page instead. If you want to see things from the visitor’s point of view, you can open your website in an Incognito tab to make sure everything is working properly.
When your website is ready to go public, you can return to this tab and disable the Coming Soon mode. At this point, visitors will be able to see your work!
Conclusion
There are a lot of situations where a Coming Soon page can come in handy. For example, if you’re on the verge of launching a new website, using it as a landing page can help you collect leads. In case you’re giving your site a makeover, a Coming Soon page tells people to keep their eye out for something new.
Whatever use you want to give it, creating a WordPress Coming Soon page is relatively simple, and it can be done in three steps (with the right tools):
Do you have any questions about how to set up a WordPress Coming Soon page? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!