How To Unpublish A WordPress Site: 3 Easy Ways

Sometimes, you may need to take your WordPress site offline. Perhaps you’re planning a major redesign or rebranding, or you’re just doing some maintenance. Other times, you may wish to make your website private, so only certain people can see it. Whatever the reason, when you unpublish a WordPress site, it can help keep things under control.

But, if you don’t unpublish your site correctly, it could lead to issues. You may lose important data, confuse your visitors, or even harm your SEO rankings on search engines. That’s why you should know the safest ways to unpublish your site without causing problems.

This tutorial describes how to unpublish a WordPress site step by step. We’ll explain simple methods like using built-in WordPress settings, activating maintenance mode, or password-protecting your web page. We also share tips on keeping your data safe and ensuring you bring your site back online whenever you are ready.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Always create a full backup of your site before you unpublish a WordPress site. This will protect your content for future use.
• When you unpublish a WordPress site, this can be temporary or permanent, depending on your goals.
• Archiving content is a great alternative to unpublishing, as it preserves SEO value and user access.
• Repurposing outdated posts into updated articles, videos, or infographics can keep your site fresh and engaging. 
• If you unpublish WordPress site, set up 301 redirects to avoid broken links and preserve a good user experience. 
• Always assess the impact of unpublishing on SEO and traffic to minimize any negative effects. 
• Plan your unpublishing process carefully to ensure a smooth experience for you and your visitors.
• Regularly monitor your site’s performance and user feedback to ensure smooth changes during the unpublishing process.

How to Temporarily Unpublish Your Entire Site

Sometimes, you don’t want to take your WordPress website down completely; you only need to make it temporarily unavailable to visitors. This can be helpful when updating the design, fixing technical issues, or preparing for a big launch. Instead of leaving your site live with incomplete changes, you can make it look professional by temporarily unpublishing it. There are 4 easy ways to do this:

1. Use a Maintenance Mode
2. Set Up a Coming Soon Page (particularly useful for new sites)
3. Discourage Search Engines
4. Restrict Access with .htaccess.

Use Maintenance Mode

Maintenance mode is a quick and effective way to temporarily unpublish your entire WordPress website. It lets visitors know that your site is undergoing some work without giving them access to your content. This is especially useful when performing updates or resolving errors. Here’s how to enable maintenance mode:

Go to your WordPress Dashboard → Plugins → Add New Plugin and search for the plugin WP Maintenance Mode. Once it appears, click Install and then Activate.

After activation, click Maintenance in your dashboard. Enable maintenance mode by toggling it on and then click Save Changes to apply it. Optionally, you can jump to various setting sections and customize your maintenance page design and other access-related settings.

Now, test your site in an incognito browser to ensure visitors see the maintenance page.

Once your updates are complete, turn off maintenance mode so your site is live again.

TIP: If you are stuck in maintenance mode, refer to the tutorial, How to Fix WordPress Stuck In Maintenance Mode.

Set up a Coming Soon Page

If you’re launching a new WordPress website or temporarily taking it offline for a major repair, a “Coming Soon” page is a great option. It’s a user-friendly way to let visitors know the site is returning and can build excitement. This approach is useful for the following reasons:

• It tells people your site is not gone forever; it’s just getting better.
• You can include teasers about what’s coming, like a countdown or sneak peeks.
• Some plugins let you add a form to collect email addresses to notify visitors when the site is live.

Here’s how to set up a Coming Soon page:

Install and activate the plugin called Website Builder by SeedProd. Then, go to SeedProd → Landing Pages. Click Set up a Coming Soon Page.

Now, choose a Coming Soon template. In this example we use the Rocket Coming Soon Page template. You can also use a blank template to create a custom Coming Soon page.

Update your page as per your requirements. Once it’s done, click Save in the top-right. You can also add an email signup form so visitors can receive updates. Alternatively, include a countdown timer to generate anticipation. 

Then, return to SeedProd → Landing Pages and turn on Coming Soon Mode. This will hide your entire site and display your custom page to visitors. 

Now, verify the page looks good by viewing your site in an incognito browser. Here’s how it looks according to our customization:

Once you’re done with changes or ready to launch, deactivate Coming Soon Mode. Your full site will be visible again.

Discourage Search Engines

If you don’t want your WordPress website to appear in search results but still want it accessible to certain people (such as your team or testers), adjust the settings in WordPress to discourage search engines from indexing your site.

By doing this, search engines won’t penalize you for temporarily going offline. Moreover, visitors with a direct link can still view your site. Here’s how to discourage search engines in WordPress:

Go to your WordPress Admin Dashboard. Click Settings and then Reading from the menu. Scroll down to the option called Discourage search engines from indexing this site. Tick the checkbox to discourage search engines. Finally, click Save Changes to update your settings.

Important: This method works as a polite request to search engines. While most major search engines will respect this setting, it’s not foolproof, so don’t rely on it for sensitive information.

Restrict Access with .htaccess

For a stronger approach, you can use the .htaccess file to restrict access to your site. This method prevents all visitors (except those with specific permissions) from accessing your site.

You can use this method if you’re looking for complete privacy, as it ensures that no one, not even search engines, can access your site. This approach is ideal for advanced users because it involves editing WordPress core files, so it’s important to be careful when you proceed.

We recommend you always back up your .htaccess file before making changes, as incorrect edits can make your site inaccessible to everyone, including yourself. If this happens, restore the original file from your backup or contact your hosting provider for assistance.

After creating a backup of your .htaccess file, go through the following steps using the Hosted.com cPanel:

Go to cPanel → Files → File Manager. If you’re using the File Manager feature for the first time, we suggest you read How To Use cPanel File Manager to learn how to use it efficiently.

Find the .htaccess file in the public_html folder; this is your site’s root directory. If you can’t see it, enable Show Hidden Files in the File Manager settings. Right-click the .htaccess file and choose Edit.

Now, insert the following code at the top of the file:

Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from [Your IP Address]

Replace [Your IP Address] with your actual IP address if you still want access to your WordPress website. Otherwise, remove this complete line.

Lastly, click Save Changes to apply the settings.

After doing this, your visitors will see the 403 forbidden error as shown below until you remove the code that was added to restrict access:

Important: This approach is useful if you want to give access only to your members. However, it’s not considered a user-friendly approach because some of your audience may not understand what the 403 forbidden error means.

How to Unpublish WordPress Site Permanently

There are several reasons to unpublish WordPress site. For instance, you could be closing down your project, moving to a new platform, or redesigning the website entirely. Whatever your reason, here’s how to safely unpublish WordPress site:

You can do this in 2 main ways:

1. Use Your Hosting Account
2. Use FTP Client or File Manager.

Let’s discuss the first approach:

Use Your Hosting Account

Permanently deleting your WordPress site involves completely removing its files and database from your hosting account, ensuring it is no longer accessible online.

However, before proceeding, it is essential to back up your data. Backups are important because they allow you to save your posts, pages, and images for future use. Additionally, having a backup makes it much easier to reinstall or migrate the site if you wish to access it in the future.

Here’s how to unpublish WordPress website permanently using Hosted.com:

First, sign in to cPanel. Then, go to Popular Applications → WordPress. Click WordPress Manager, represented by the WordPress logo.

Click on the downward arrow next to your installation, scroll down, and click Uninstall. This will delete files, folders, databases, and database users for this specific WordPress installation.

A confirmation window will appear with details of what will be deleted. You can uncheck if you don’t want to remove anything, for example, database and database users. Once you are 100% sure you wish to remove the installation, click Remove Installation and finalize the process.

Once deleted, your WordPress site will no longer be accessible, and its files will be permanently removed from the server.

Use FTP Client or File Manager

If you prefer more control over the process, you can manually unpublish WordPress site using your hosting account’s File Manager or an FTP client. If you’re using FTP Client FileZilla, you can refer to the following guides:

– How To Configure A Site In FileZilla

– How To Manage Files In FileZilla

– How To Upload Files Using FileZilla

However, for this tutorial example, we use the Hosted.com File Manager instead. See below:

Log in to the Hosted.com cPanel and navigate to Files → File Manager. Click the public_html folder. This is where your WordPress files are stored. Open the wp-config.php file and note down the database name, username, and password so you have them if you need them in future.

Then, select all files in the public_html folder.  Right-click on the highlighted files and click Delete.

To delete faster, choose Skip the trash and permanently delete the files, and click Confirm.

So far, we’ve discussed how to unpublish WordPress site temporarily and permanently. Let’s see how to unpublish specific content in WordPress.

How to Unpublish a Page in WordPress or a Post

Sometimes, you don’t need to unpublish your entire WordPress website. You may wish to hide specific pages or posts instead. WordPress makes this easy with options like switching to draft, using bulk actions, setting content to private, or password-protecting it. Let’s explore these methods:

Set to Draft, Private, or Password Protected Status

Changing a page or post to draft status means it is no longer visible to the public. This is a great option if you need time to update the content or decide whether to republish it later. Here’s how to do it:

Go to your WordPress admin panel. Click Posts or Pages in the left menu, depending on what you wish to edit. Locate the content you want to unpublish. Hover over the page or post title and click Edit.

On the editor screen, find Status on the right. Click on the current Status option and select Draft. Lastly, click Save in the top-right.

Your content will now be removed from public view but will remain saved in your dashboard for future edits.

However, if you want only administrators and editors to see certain pages or posts, you can set these to private. This option is useful for internal use or restricted access. In this case, your content is now private and only visible to logged-in site administrators and editors.

Additionally, password protection is ideal to let specific people view your content. In this case, select Password protected and enter a strong password in the provided field. Then, click Save in the top-right corner.

Now, visitors will need to enter a password to access the page or post content.

TIP: If you wish to delve deeper, read our tutorial, How to Password Protect a WordPress Site – The Ultimate Guide.

Use Bulk Actions for Multiple Pages or Posts

If you need to unpublish several pages or posts at once, WordPress lets you do this using bulk actions. This saves time compared to editing each piece of content individually. To do this:

Go to Posts or Pages in the dashboard. Check the box next to every page or post you wish to unpublish. To select all items on the page, mark the checkbox at the top of the list. Then, click the Bulk actions dropdown menu above the list. Select Edit and click Apply.

In the bulk edit options, find the Status dropdown menu. Choose Draft and click Update.

All selected pages or posts will now be unpublished and saved as drafts.

Tips for Unpublishing Your WordPress Content

Unpublishing content is a major decision, and it’s important to do it correctly. Whether it’s an outdated blog post or a page you no longer require, these tips may help you manage your WordPress content while considering your site’s SEO and user experience.

Archive Instead of Unpublishing

Archiving your content is a great alternative to unpublishing. When you archive, your content stays accessible to search engines and visitors. This helps you keep your site’s SEO intact, as older pages can still bring in traffic. It’s also useful for users who may still find value in the information, even if the data is not featured on your main site.

To archive content in WordPress, use a dedicated category. This method helps label and organize archived posts. To do this, go to Posts → Categories and create a new category named Archive.

Next, open the post you wish to archive by going to Posts → All Posts. Edit each post and assign it to the Archive category. Then, save your changes.

If you want to exclude the Archive category from the front page, use the Ultimate Category Excluder plugin.

Remember, If you hide the Archive category from your homepage or blog using plugins like Ultimate Category Excluder, the posts in the category are still accessible through direct URLs (permalinks) and search engines.

In this case, it will have minimal impact on SEO because the content remains indexed by search engines and can still rank for relevant keywords. However, hiding the category may reduce internal linking opportunities; this affects how search engines crawl your site.

Repurpose Your Content

Another excellent strategy is repurposing outdated content. This involves giving your posts a fresh purpose instead of unpublishing. For instance, you can update old articles with new information, making them relevant again. If a post contains a lot of data or tips, consider changing it into a visually engaging infographic using tools like Canva.

Additionally, blog posts can be transformed into other formats, like video tutorials, podcasts, or e-books. For example, a series of related posts can be combined into a downloadable guide for your audience. Repurposing maximizes your existing efforts and keeps your site’s content fresh and engaging.

Assess Impact on SEO & User Experience

When you unpublish WordPress site’s content, it can lead to broken links and lost traffic; this may harm your site’s SEO and visitor experience. Before taking down a page or post, assess the potential impact and take steps to reduce negative effects.

For instance, setting up 301 redirects using a plugin like Redirection ensures that visitors to the old URL are directed to a relevant page instead of encountering an error.

Also, notify your audience when you make significant changes. For example, if you are about to remove a popular page, a blog post or email will let users know why and guide them to alternative resources. After unpublishing, monitor your site’s performance using tools like Google Search Console to track any changes in traffic or SEO rankings.

FAQS

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