A WooCommerce store owner recently recounted an incident where a customer reached out via email during a routine update, inquiring if the business had closed down. The reason? The customer encountered a broken checkout page while the site was undergoing updates.
Such situations are more frequent than you might expect, highlighting the necessity for every online store to implement a proper maintenance mode. It acts as a professional ‘Coming Soon’ sign, ensuring your brand maintains a polished appearance while you make essential updates behind the scenes.
This is crucial because even short periods of downtime can result in lost sales and erode customer trust.
Through years of assisting numerous WooCommerce store owners, we’ve discovered the most effective strategies to manage site maintenance without confusing visitors or damaging your reputation.
In this guide, I will demonstrate how to effortlessly enable maintenance mode for WooCommerce using reliable tools and actionable tips, allowing you to update your store with assurance. 🌟
Understanding the Importance and Timing of Enabling WooCommerce Maintenance Mode
There are compelling reasons to activate maintenance mode for your WooCommerce store. Firstly, when implementing significant changes, activating WordPress maintenance mode prevents users from accessing the site and encountering any disarray.
If your online store is experiencing issues, particularly with WooCommerce payments, activating maintenance mode will prevent customers from encountering problems. This allows you to address the necessary maintenance tasks until your store is ready to go live again.
If you’re planning to launch a new online store on your existing website and want to keep it a secret until it’s ready, maintenance mode is the ideal solution. You can display an engaging maintenance mode page to build anticipation while you work on your WooCommerce shop.
If you find yourself in any of these situations, this article is just for you. In the upcoming sections, we will explore how to activate maintenance mode in WooCommerce. You can use the quick links provided to easily navigate through the steps.
- Install a Maintenance Mode Page Plugin
- Create Your Maintenance Mode Page
- Configure the Maintenance Mode Settings
- Activate Maintenance Mode for Your WooCommerce Store
- Bonus Tip: Create a Viral Waitlist Landing Page for Your WooCommerce Store
- Bonus Resources: Additional WordPress Maintenance Guides
Let’s get started.
Step 1: Install a Maintenance Mode Page Plugin
The simplest way to enable maintenance mode for WooCommerce is by using SeedProd.
SeedProd is the leading landing page builder for WordPress, utilized by over 1 million websites. It enables you to design stunning coming soon pages, enhance your 404 error page, and create custom landing pages effortlessly using a drag-and-drop interface.
Several of our partner brands utilize SeedProd to develop their websites. They have had positive experiences, and we highly recommend you explore its features.
For more insights, check out our comprehensive SeedProd review.
SeedProd offers a free version that allows you to create a maintenance mode page. However, we recommend using the premium version, which enables you to activate maintenance mode for your WooCommerce store while keeping the rest of your site accessible.
The first step is to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For detailed instructions, refer to our guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.
After activating the plugin, SeedProd will prompt you to enter your license key.
You can locate this information in your account on the SeedProd website. Once you have entered the license key, click the ‘Verify Key’ button.
After completing this step, you are ready to enable maintenance mode for your WooCommerce store.
Step 2: Create Your Maintenance Mode Page
After activating SeedProd, navigate to SeedProd » PagesHere, you can decide whether to set up a maintenance mode page or a coming soon page.
While many people use these terms interchangeably, there are key differences to understand. For a comprehensive overview, refer to our article comparing coming soon and maintenance mode.
Essentially, if you create a ‘Coming Soon’ page, search engines can still access and crawl your store pages. This allows your WooCommerce site to be indexed by search engines.
If you are in the process of launching a new store, it is advisable to create a coming soon page.
Conversely, if your store is undergoing maintenance, you should set up a ‘Maintenance Mode’ page. This informs search engines that your site is temporarily unavailable, using the special header code 503.
Once this code is implemented, search bots will revisit your WordPress website later to check if it is back online. This way, you can conceal your store page from customers without impacting your search engine rankings.
In this guide, we will create a maintenance mode page, but the steps will be identical whether you choose the ‘Set up a Maintenance Mode Page’ or ‘Set up a Coming Soon Page’ option.
The next step involves creating the page that customers will see when you activate maintenance mode for your online store.
You can either opt for a pre-designed template or start from scratch. We are using the ‘Celebrate Coming Soon’ template in our examples, but feel free to choose any template that suits your style.
To choose a SeedProd template kit, simply hover over the thumbnail of your desired design and click the checkmark icon.
Once you’ve selected a template, you’ll be directed to the drag-and-drop page builder where you can begin personalizing your maintenance mode layout.
On the left side of the screen, you’ll find various blocks and sections that you can incorporate into your design. The right side displays a live preview of your changes.
Most templates come with pre-existing blocks, which are essential components of all SeedProd designs. To get started, you will usually want to modify these blocks by editing the text or adding images, links, and other content.
To edit the text in any Headline or Text block, simply click on that block in your layout. This will open the settings for that specific block.
You can now enter your text into the small text editor provided.
These settings allow you to customize the text style, including options for bold and italic formatting, text alignment, font size adjustments, and more.
You can enhance your maintenance page by adding more blocks. Simply drag them from the left-hand menu and drop them onto your design.
For instance, if you want to include a custom logo, just drag an Image block into your layout.
Next, click to select that block in your layout, and the left-hand menu will display all available settings for that block.
To upload a logo, click on ‘Use Your Own Image.’
You can choose an image from the WordPress media library or upload a new file directly from your computer.
After adding an image, you can adjust its size, add alt text, embed a link, and more through the settings in the left-hand menu.
If you have the WPForms plugin, you can easily add a contact form to your maintenance page, providing customers a way to reach you even when your WooCommerce site is undergoing maintenance.
ℹ️Note:WPForms is our preferred contact form builder at CanadaCreate. We utilize it to create various forms, including our annual reader surveys and site migration request forms. Discover more about this plugin in our comprehensive WPForms review.
Once you’ve created a contact form, you can drag the Contact Form block into your SeedProd layout.
Next, click on the Contact Form block to access its settings.
In the left-hand menu, open the dropdown and select the form you created earlier.
You can also use WPForms to create an email signup form, allowing you to notify subscribers when your store is operational. For detailed instructions, refer to our guide on building an email list in WordPress.
To remove a block from your design, simply click on it and then select the trash can icon.
You can rearrange blocks on the page by using drag and drop.
Continue adding blocks to your layout and customize them using the settings in the left-hand menu.
For instance, if you are using RafflePress, you could create a WooCommerce coupon giveaway and promote it on your maintenance mode page.
ℹ️Note:RafflePress is one of our top recommended plugins, which we utilize for our annual birthday giveaway. Check out our detailed RafflePress review for further insights into its features.
For additional details, please refer to our comprehensive guide on how to effectively run a contest in WordPress.
Once you are satisfied with the appearance of the maintenance page, be sure to click ‘Save’ to apply your changes.
Step 3: Set Up the Maintenance Mode Settings
Having created a custom ‘coming soon’ or maintenance mode page, let’s proceed to activate it on your eCommerce site.
In this step, we aim to enable maintenance mode specifically for the store, rather than the entire website. To achieve this, click on the ‘Page Settings’ tab within the SeedProd editor.
Next, select the ‘Access Control’ tab.
These settings allow you to determine where the coming soon or maintenance page will be displayed on your WordPress site and who will have access to it. For instance, you can restrict visibility to users with specific roles or IP addresses.
To set our WooCommerce site to maintenance mode, navigate to the ‘Include/Exclude URLs’ section.
Then, simply click on the ‘Include URLs’ button.
Now, you will need to input the URLs for your WooCommerce store.
The process may differ based on your store’s configuration and whether you want maintenance mode to appear on specific pages, such as your custom WooCommerce cart or checkout pages.
To enable maintenance mode for your entire WooCommerce store, include all the automatically generated pages:
https://example.com/shop
https://example.com/cart
https://example.com/checkout
https://example.com/my-account
Additionally, you will need to include the URLs for your products. Remember to add the asterisk!
The asterisk acts as a wildcard character, allowing SeedProd to include all URLs that fit the specified pattern.
This setup ensures that customers will see the maintenance page when they attempt to access any product, product category, or product tag.
https://example.com/product/*
https://example.com/product-category/*
https://example.com/product-tag/*
Once you have added all these URLs, click the ‘Save’ button to apply your changes.
Step 4: Activate Maintenance Mode for Your WooCommerce Store
You can activate maintenance mode for your WooCommerce store at any time. In the WordPress admin dashboard, navigate to SeedProd » Landing Pages.
Next, toggle the ‘Inactive’ slider under ‘Coming Soon Mode’ or ‘Maintenance Mode’ to switch it to ‘Active.’
Now, open your WooCommerce store in an incognito browser tab to view your custom design instead of the live store.
When you’re ready to launch your store to the public, simply return to SeedProd » Landing Pages.
Then, toggle the ‘Active’ slider to change it to ‘Inactive.’ This will allow visitors to access your WooCommerce store and purchase products and services as usual.
Bonus Tip: Create a Viral Waitlist Landing Page for Your WooCommerce Store
In addition to enabling maintenance mode for your online store, SeedProd allows you to create a viral waitlist landing page.
This landing page can inform your audience about exciting upcoming features. You can also include a form for them to join your waitlist and be the first to know when the page goes live.
Additionally, you can leverage this waitlist data to send email newsletters about future promotions.
If you’re interested in this topic, read our article on how to create a viral waitlist landing page in WordPress.
Bonus Resources: Additional WordPress Maintenance Guides
We hope this guide has helped you understand how to activate maintenance mode for WooCommerce. You might also be interested in our articles on:
- Essential Tips for eCommerce Website Maintenance
- Preparing Your WordPress Site for High-Traffic Events
- Regular WordPress Maintenance Tasks You Should Perform
- Understanding the Duration of WordPress Maintenance
- Top WordPress Support Agencies to Consider
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