We’ve seen the advantages of putting your WordPress site in maintenance mode. So, now that we’ve covered the why and how of putting your WordPress site in maintenance mode, it’s time to cover the disadvantages, if any.
The above code will ensure that all website requests will be directed to the maintenance page.ĭo replace the ‘ ’ mentioned in the code with the actual URL of your maintenance page. If (!current_user_can(‘edit_themes’) || !is_user_logged_in()) !^/undermaintenance\.html$ Now, all you need to do is add the following lines of code to the end of the functions.php file, // Activate WordPress Maintenance Mode
Let’s now walk you through the steps on how to put your WordPress site in maintenance mode. You get to display a friendly notification indicating the maintenance and the expected timeframe for the website to return to service.
If you were to carry out the updates on the live site, your maintenance mode will probably be for a more extended period.Įnabling maintenance mode is a much better way to update your WordPress site. If you are creating a staging site, your site maintenance mode will be for a short period. How do you create a staging site? We’ll cover an easy method later on in this article. If all looks good on the test site, you could push the updates onto the live site. This way, you have nothing to worry about if an update doesn’t go as planned. The advantage of setting up a staging site is to allow you to run all the updates and maintenance in a test environment. If all looks good, disabling maintenance mode.If all is good and working fine on the staging site, carrying out the updates on the live site.Running a test to check if everything looks fine.Carrying out the updates on the staging environment.Creating a staging site (which is a clone of your actual site).Putting your WordPress site into maintenance mode.The ideal way to carry out significant updates and maintenance is by: You wouldn’t want your customers to have a bad experience seeing a broken website and forming a negative impression of your brand! If there are problems with the update, you’ll end up with a broken website and have to get your website down quickly and into maintenance mode. Would you run the risk of running an update without taking a backup? And the store has a fair amount of traffic and visitors. That being said, not all updates are as simple as clicking on the ‘update now’ link.įor instance, let’s say you’re running a WooCommerce store. Minor updates, such as publishing a new piece of content, updating an image, updating themes, and specific plugins, can be achieved without any downtime. Why? Because it’s best to carry out these updates and maintenance behind closed doors! When and Why Should Maintenance Mode Be Used Now that we know what the maintenance page is and how it looks let’s understand when and why we should be using them. Maintenance pages could include contact details, a contact form, or even a countdown timer indicating when the website will be back online.Īs long as the page tells the visitor exactly what’s going on, the page will work. You’ll agree that it’s better to have a well-designed maintenance page up on your website than a faulty website or one that’s being updated.