If you’re building a new website or need to make changes to an existing one, you don’t want your customer to see incomplete pages or broken links. One solution is to add an Under Construction page to your website.
If you add a lead form to your Under Construction page, you can also capture emails from potential customers. When Fiona Parfrey was launching period care brand Riley, she sent a five-minute survey to potential customers who entered their email address on the company’s landing page. “In the end, we had over 650,” Fiona says. “It was bigger than we had anticipated—which was great, just to get as much data as possible prior to launching.”
In this article, learn how to build and launch your under construction page, with examples from real businesses.
What is a website under construction page?
A website under construction page is a placeholder page that appears when a website is undergoing big changes. It lets visitors know that your site is temporarily unavailable, and prevents them from browsing the site and encountering broken links and incomplete content. Think of it like putting a Closed for Renovation sign in a store window.
There are two main reasons you might use an under construction page:
- Backend maintenance. For security reasons, you might perform critical updates or bug fixes that require the entire site to be offline for a short period to preserve data integrity.
- Initial development stage. When you’ve registered a domain and aren’t ready to launch your online store, you can use a Coming Soon page to notify visitors that work is underway on the site.
If you already have a fully functional site and are rebranding or making other changes, there are alternatives to an under construction page, like keeping the current site live while you make changes on a staging site. This helps preserve search engine optimization (SEO) while you work on the new site, but it means customers will continue to browse the old site.
Examples of under construction pages
Under construction pages can take different forms. Here are a few examples to inspire you:
Tailmi Paws
Pet accessories brand Tailmi Paws has an image-forward under construction page. Visitors can scroll down to view more product images, sign up for Tailmi’s email newsletter, and read about the company’s presale.
Tailmi also uses a gamified pop-up to encourage newsletter sign-ups with a scratch-to-reveal discount code. If you want to add one to your under construction page, you can download a pop-up app from the Shopify App Store.
Bead Barettes
Under construction pages can also tease specific products or lines. The Bead Barettes under construction page, built with the Gain theme on Shopify, includes information about their hair-braiding beads that snap on like barrettes. The website copy focuses on benefits, like the fact that barrettes won’t roll away like regular beads.
To build even more excitement for the brand, the page ends with an inline newsletter sign-up form.
Strictly Noms
With Shopify’s Yuva theme, you have the option of giving authorized users access to the full site, while also providing general information for visitors. That’s what snack brand Strictly Noms did.
They started with the Yuva theme’s standard template, then customized the page to add their logo, product information, and links to social media accounts.
What to include in an under construction page
- Launch date or progress
- Engaging visuals
- Clear calls to action (CTAs)
- Contact information
- Social media links
Here’s what to include on your under construction page:
Launch date or progress
When possible, add a timeline for when your store will be accessible to visitors. Whether you use a specific or estimated date, it gives them a reason to return.
For example, clothing brand Moonless used a password page to let visitors know they’d have a new drop on July 12, giving them an exact date to come back.
If you have a fixed date, you can add a countdown timer app to your store.
Engaging visuals
Your visuals help build your brand identity. You can tease your business with high-quality product images or take jewelry brand Grim’s approach.
While they didn’t include an image of their jewelry on their page, they did share a textured black background and an all-black color scheme to convey their gothic aesthetic.
With Shopify Sidekick, it’s easy to create visually interesting photos that are on brand. The AI assistant is built into your Shopify store, and you can use a plain-language request to have it change the backgrounds of your photos, customize designs, and more.
Clear calls to action (CTAs)
Call-to-action buttons guide visitors toward what to do next. To add a CTA button to your under construction page, head to the theme editor in your Shopify admin. If you click anywhere on the page, you’ll see an expanded menu on the left-hand side.
You can click “Add a Block” and choose “Button.” Then you can move the button to the desired location. You can also change what the CTA says and how it looks.
Contact information
Add relevant contact info so potential customers and partners can reach out, and you can collect and store their data. You can include an email address, phone number, or a simple email contact form.
For example, athleisure clothing retailer Athleia House of Versatile’s under construction page had a contact form where users could enter their name and contact info, along with a comment or question.
All Shopify themes have a built-in contact form you can add to any page using the contact form section.
Social media links
Add links to your social media profiles on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and more. These give customers an alternative channel to engage with your brand until the site comes back online.
In your social media feeds, you can add web status updates, tease products, and respond to inquiries.
How to set your Shopify website to “under construction”
When your website requires major fixes or maintenance, activate construction mode (sometimes referred to as maintenance mode) to hide your site and alert interested visitors to come back later.
Here are three methods you can use:
Enable built-in password page
This is the quickest way to put your store under construction. Shopify themes come with a default password page you can enable and customize without any coding knowledge.
Follow these steps:
1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Preferences.
2. Find the Store Access section and toggle the switch to enable it.
3. Enter a password in the provided field. You’ll share this password with anyone that should have access (like team members and beta testers).
4. Add a message for your visitors in the text field provided to let customers know why your store’s unavailable.
5. Click Save.
Once you activate password protection, a password page will be displayed whenever someone visits your website. By default, this page includes an email sign-up banner, but you can further customize it in the theme editor.
When you’re ready to bring the website back online, all you have to do is go back to your admin and uncheck the Restrict Access box, then save the change.
Download an app or plug-in
If you don’t want to use the password page as yourunder construction page, or you don’t have Shopify, you can use a dedicated page-builder app or plug-in. Plug-ins handle the technical complexities, so you can design and activate the page without coding knowledge.
Some of these apps, like EComposer Landing Page Builder, come with under construction website templates.
Pause your store
If you’d rather not temporarily hide your entire store, you can always pause your store. This means customers will be able to browse your store, but they won’t be able to check out. Pausing your store might be a good option for you if you have a seasonal store that doesn’t need to be online year-round. Since you’ll pay a reduced subscription fee with the Pause and Build plan, it’ll save you money.
To pause your store, follow these steps on your desktop:
1. Log into Shopify as the store owner.
2. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Plan.
3. Click Cancel plan and enter your password.
4. Click Cancel plan again, and all your available options will appear.
5. Select the Pause and build plan.
6. Look at the plan details, and click Switch to Pause and build.
When you’re ready to open your store again, you can go back to your Settings and pick a plan.
Website under construction FAQ
What does “website under construction” mean?
It tells visitors your site is temporarily closed or being built, so they can’t browse yet. Brands use under construction pages to tease launches, advertise products, and gather information from potential customers.
What do you write on your under construction page?
Explain that the site is being built, improved, or updated, and say when it will be back. Add ways for customers to stay connected, like a sign-up form for email updates or social media links.
How do I put my website under construction?
Configure your web hosting platform to show a custom page to visitors while you work on the site behind the scenes. In Shopify, the easy way is to password protect the website and add a message explaining that the site is under construction.
How do I protect my website’s SEO when it’s temporarily offline?
If you have an active site, taking it down temporarily can affect your SEO. However, you have options, such as creating a staging site where you can test changes without affecting your main website, or turning on Shopify’s Pause and Build plan.
