How To Set Up Under Construction Page

And so you've fabricated the decision to launch a new shop using WooCommerce. The first few things you'll exercise are choose a hosting solution and order your new domain name, then you can go started on setting everything up, and getting prepare for launch.

Just await! What if someone visits your site while you're working on it?

Welcome to to the useful world of Coming Presently or pre-launch landing pages. Let'southward take a wait at why it's a good idea to prepare one up and how to add 1 to your store for costless.

An example of a Coming Soon page used by Barleyandhops.co.za — An example of a Coming Before long folio used by Barleyandhops.co.za pre launch

Why practice y'all need a Coming Soon page?

A Coming Soon folio provides your potential first customers a sneak peek at what's coming, and gives them a way to connect with you before you unveil your new store. It also conveniently hides your piece of work in progress from visitors.

While your shop is under structure, yous'll probably focus on promotional activeness: press off business concern cards, networking, social media, and 1,001 other things to raise sensation of your new store.

Then while you're out doing these things, start pointing people to your new domain, so potential customers know exactly where to find your store once it's live.

What to include in your Coming Soon folio

There are some pretty standard things y'all should look to display on a Coming Before long folio. In general, include as many of the post-obit things as you can:

Your logo
Some brief introductory text
A newsletter signup
Social media links

Logo
Substance matters as much equally style, but if y'all have a great logo, it tin really set up the tone and tell visitors what to expect from your store when it goes live.

Introductory Text
Go to the indicate with this text: keep it brusk and snappy. People hopped here from your business bill of fare or a Facebook link and were hoping to reach your actual shop! Explain who, what, when, where, and why – every bit well equally what's unique nigh your new store. This is your time to shine. Be sure to tell people when your store volition be upward and running – a specific date is ideal.

HINT Requite people a reason to connect with y'all now! Entice them: "Subscribe to our newsletter beneath and nosotros'll send yous a notification and a discount coupon as soon as the store goes alive…"

Newsletter signup
Never miss an opportunity to capture data from your potential customers. People looking at your Coming Soon page are showing interest in your store. Get their electronic mail addresses now, and y'all tin tell them when your virtual doors are open up for business.

For newsletters, MailChimp is a great choice, and, in one case your store is live, in that location are some excellent integrations to cull from – see the free WooCommerce MailChimp extension here.

Social Media Links
E-mail'south younger and snazzier cousin is undoubtedly social media. Prominently display buttons to your social media profiles and Encourage your Coming Shortly page visitors to "like" and "follow" y'all on the social channels they utilize.

How to fix a Coming Soon folio for WooCommerce

At present that y'all have a good idea virtually what to include in your pre-launch landing page, allow'south explore how to get i gear up on WordPress and WooCommerce. You'll do this by adding a plugin.

There are a few Coming Before long plugins in the WordPress ecosystem – free and premium – to choose from, including:

Coming Soon Folio and Maintenance Mode past SeedProd
Coming Soon by Dazzlersoft
Coming Presently and Maintenance Mode by wpdevart

Past far the well-nigh reviewed and ofttimes installed is Coming Before long Folio and Maintenance Mode by SeedProd.

It'south a keen option, and the free version will get yous up and running with all of the central elements quickly – hither, let's focus on how to use it.

1. Install and Actuate

Log in to your WordPress site
Click "Plugins > Add New"
Search for "SeedProd Coming Presently"
Click "Install Now" side by side to the relevant plugin
Click "Activate"

Click 'Install Now' next to the relevant plugin

This will install and actuate the plugin.

2. Enable Coming Shortly Mode
Once you have installed and activated the plugin, visit Settings > Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode and you'll see a screen like this:

Once the plugin is installed and activated, visit Settings > Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode

Check the box to Enable Coming Shortly Mode – then it'southward time to make full in the details yous'd like to evidence visitors pre launch.

3. Customize your folio

In Settings > Coming Before long & Maintenance Mode > Page Settings you'll see a couple of tabs where you lot can upload a logo, write a headline and farther text yous'd similar people to read, add a groundwork epitome, and alter text and link colors.

Design tab where you can add a background image and more — A sneak peek of the Design tab, where you can add a background paradigm and more than.

It is worth spending time on your Coming Soon page, particularly if you look to send pre-launch traffic to it from your marketing. To check your progress, click the "Live Preview" to view an example of how it will await on your website once sav

Once you are happy,make sure you lot have Coming Soon way enabled, and then hit "Save all Changes."

Enabling the Coming Soon mode in this plugin makes your Coming Soon page display to whatsoever visitor who is not logged in — including yous. And so you'll need to log in to view your site-in-progress, as will any colleagues or clients you've given admission to "behind the curtain."

Upgrade to Pro for more than options

If you lot'd like to make your page a lilliputian fancier, or have information technology exercise some of the heavy lifting for you lot, you can upgrade to SeedProd's Pro version. Your selection here volition well-nigh likely be determined by your comfort level styling with the visual editor and HTML, every bit well as how much pre-launch promotion you have in mind.

Some other thing to consider is the usefulness of the Maintenance Way option included in the Pro version. When yous are running a WooCommerce store, y'all may want to use maintenance fashion while you make a vital update or add together a new product line, for example. If you recollect you'll use maintenance windows in the future, the Pro version is a worthwhile investment.

Update your Coming Shortly page – and so go live!

While you are edifice your store, you can update your Coming Soon page as and when you lot have new information to include.

For example, maybe you initially simply had a Facebook page, but y'all take plant some time to become set up up on Twitter… add this to your page. It will help your social media to get picked up by search engines, and people will start post-obit you.

Most importantly, in one case you are able to settle on a launch date, add information almost when the site will be live.

Finally, when you are prepare to launch your shop, follow these steps to remove the Coming Shortly page:

Visit Settings > Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode
Check the box to have your shop out of Coming Presently mode ("Disabled").
Tell anybody!

Once your shop is live, you will hopefully have gained subscribers in your newsletter list, fans on social media, and leads through direct contacts.

Have you started a new WooCommerce store? Did you use a Coming Shortly page to build excitement and abound your post-obit? We'd love to hear from you lot in the comments.

——-

Robin Scott is pb WordPress and WooCommerce developer for WooExpert business, Silicon Dales. As well every bit overseeing new site builds, Robin works much of the time optimizing medium to large WooCommerce stores for better performance.