Between design, copywriting, and organization, websites can take a long time to create and perfect. However, the best time to start spreading word of mouth about your new business is now, not later.
Fortunately, there’s a straightforward solution: set up a Coming Soon page. Once you have your site's domain name picked out and registered, and you’re ready to start advertising your business, a Coming Soon page enables you to start marketing immediately.
In this article, we’ll discuss how to set up a Coming Soon page for your WordPress website using three different methods. Let’s get started!
Why You Might Need a Coming Soon Page
A Coming Soon page is a placeholder page used as a ‘teaser’ for a website that’s still under construction. You might use one when you’re in the process of building up your business’ online presence, but are ready to start advertising and attracting an audience:
A placeholder website means you can start building a buzz and getting people excited, even before you complete the site itself. It also enables you to coordinate advertising, print marketing materials, and spread word of mouth, all using your domain name. If you have a Coming Soon page set up, people won’t be met with an empty page if they visit your URL.
What’s more, people can start bookmarking your website so they can visit it once you’re open for business. You can also post updates to your Coming Soon page as needed, and invite people to join your mailing list to be notified when your site is up and running.
What to Include on Your Coming Soon Page
While every situation is a little different, there are a few elements that any effective Coming Soon page should have. When building yours, here’s what you might want to include:
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A video. A short video about what your business or website will offer is a smart way to build anticipation (like this one from Nitehawk).
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Your logo and theme colors. Use your business’ logo and primary colors to design the page. That way, people can start associating that branding with your site and company.
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A mailing list sign-up form. With a mailing list, you can invite visitors to stay in touch, which will give you a platform to notify people once your business is open.
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Social media links. By including links to your business’ social media profiles, you can invite people to follow them for notifications. This will help you build a following, and give you a way to contact potential customers.
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Information. Finally, don’t forget to include any information you have, such as a loose timeline for when your site will be ready, and a sneak peek at what it will be all about. (This can even be phrased mysteriously if you want to pique interest.)
For more ideas about what your Coming Soon page might look like, you can also check out some outstanding examples to get inspired:
Once you have a plan in place and you know what your Coming Soon page will include, all that’s left is to put it together.
How to Build a Coming Soon Page for Your New WordPress Site (3 Methods)
Now, let’s go over three easy ways to place a Coming Soon page on your site. Any one of these methods will do the job, so we’d recommend reading through all of them and going with whatever approach feels best.
For the first two methods, we’ll be assuming you’re using WordPress to build your Coming Soon page (if not your website itself). However, you can check out the last technique regardless of the platform you’re using.
1. Use a Plugin
Probably the simplest method of creating a Coming Soon page in WordPress is to use a plugin. This will enable you to keep working on your site ‘behind the scenes’, with minimal technical knowledge required.
For example, you can use the free Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode plugin:
This plugin offers both coming soon and maintenance modes. Maintenance mode is a useful feature you can use even after your website launches. It enables you to briefly disable your website so you can make big changes without visitors seeing them. No matter what mode you have enabled, however, you will still be able to see the full version of your site when logged in.
To get started, first install the plugin. Then, in your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings > Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode to configure it:
Here, you can customize what your page will look like. You can enter a logo and headline, adjust the text, tweak the header, and so on. Make sure to hit Save All Changes when you’re done.
Under Design, you’ll find even more options related to colors, images, and sizes:
Finally, back under the Content tab you’ll want to select Enable Coming Soon Mode. This will make the page live, and direct any visitors to your site to the right place.
If you get the premium version of the plugin, you can even connect your mailing list service to your Coming Soon page, in order to start collecting subscribers. This version of the plugin has other useful features as well, such as the ability to send a ‘secret’ link to your clients to so they can view the full version of your website without a username.
2. Choose a Dedicated Theme
If you don’t want to use a plugin, you can also get a theme with a built-in Coming Soon page template. This is slightly more complicated than using a plugin, but is still pretty simple. Just keep in mind that you’ll probably need to pay a bit to get a premium theme, since most free options don’t provide this functionality.
Jevelin, for example, is a multi-purpose theme that includes a Coming Soon page feature:
This means you can use the theme itself to build your site and your placeholder. After purchasing and installing the plugin, you’ll be able to customize your Coming Soon page’s fields as with a normal WordPress page. However, the template provides you with a foundation that already looks sleek and elegant.
You can even create two separate menus – one with only your Coming Soon page on it, and one with your site-in-progress. You can keep working on the rest of your site, and when the time comes to unveil it, you’ll be able to simply switch the menus.
3. Create the Coming Soon Page Manually
Finally, you can always create a Coming Soon page manually. This is the most complicated method, but affords you the most flexibility and can be used regardless of platform.
Depending on your own technical prowess (or lack thereof), you may want to involve a professional for this. Essentially, you’ll need to create and set up a subdomain on a separate hosting kernel. This will give you two spaces to work on, which can host separate websites.
If you want your Coming Soon page to be visible, you can point your DNS records to the subdomain. Whatever you put on this subdomain will now be the face of your website, and you can continue editing your actual site behind the scenes. Then, when your site is ready, you can point your records back towards it.
WordPress Coming Soon Page Conclusion
Having a Coming Soon page will enable you to register your domain and start drumming up buzz for your new business – before you perfect your website. You can continue working on your site behind the scenes, but visitors will only see a placeholder. This lets you take all the time you need to smooth out the details.
What’s more, it’s easy to create a Coming Soon page for your WordPress website. You have three main options:
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Use a dedicated plugin, such as Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode.
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Use a theme like Jevelin, with a Coming Soon page template.
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Set up the page manually using a subdomain.
Image credit: typographyimages.
