Do you want to learn how to put WooCommerce in maintenance mode? Maintenance mode lets you tell users you’re conducting website maintenance, so they don’t see a broken website.
It also means you can hide your new WooCommerce store from visitors while safely performing any maintenance tasks.
This article will show you how to put WooCommerce in maintenance mode for beginners. That way, you can keep your WooCommerce shop page private while you’re working on it behind the scenes.
What Is WooCommerce Maintenance Mode?
WooCommerce maintenance mode is a feature on WordPress websites using WooCommerce that allows store owners to put their online store into a maintenance mode or under construction mode.
When enabled, maintenance mode displays a customized message to visitors, letting them know that the site is currently down for maintenance and will be back up soon. This message can also provide an estimated time for when the site will be back online and can include contact information for support.
During maintenance mode, visitors are unable to access the website’s products, pages, or checkout process. Instead, they are directed to the maintenance mode page until the store is ready to go back online.
When to Enable WooCommerce Maintenance Mode?
There are several scenarios where you may want to enable the maintenance mode page for WooCommerce:
- When you are performing updates or maintenance on your website: If you need to perform updates or maintenance on your website, it’s a good idea to enable maintenance mode to prevent visitors from accessing your store during the process. This will ensure that your customers do not experience any issues while you’re making changes to your site.
- When you are making significant changes to your online store: If you’re making significant changes to your online store, such as updating your WordPress theme, redesigning your website, or adding new features, it’s a good idea to enable the maintenance mode page. This will prevent visitors from seeing any broken links or unfinished pages while you’re working on your site.
- When you’re migrating your online store to a new server or platform: If you’re migrating your online store to a new server or platform, it’s a good idea to enable maintenance mode. This will ensure that your customers do not experience any issues while you’re transferring your data and setting up your new platform.
- When you’re testing new functionality: If you’re testing new functionality on your website, such as a new WordPress plugin or feature, it’s a good idea to enable maintenance. This will ensure that your customers do not experience any issues while you’re testing the new functionality.
Let’s now learn how to put WooCommerce in maintenance mode.
How to Put WooCommerce in Maintenance Mode
There are many wp maintenance mode plugins available, and some WordPress hosting providers off that functionality automatically. If your web hosting doesn’t offer a maintenance mode template, you can use maintenance mode plugins, such as Elementor or the SeedProd plugin.
Follow the steps below to learn how to hide your WooCommerce shop page.
Video Tutorial
Step 1. Install SeedProd
The first step to putting WooCommerce in maintenance mode is to install a maintenance mode plugin.
SeedProd is the best WordPress drag-and-drop landing page builder with coming soon and maintenance modes functionality. This allows you to enable maintenance mode in WordPress without editing your functions.php file. SeedProd is also a fully functional WordPress theme builder, allowing you to create beautiful WordPress layouts without writing code.
Not only that but with SeedProd, you can also enable a WooCommerce coming soon page and create high-converting landing pages for your site. So, you don’t need multiple maintenance plugins; you can do all 3 tasks with SeedProd.
Check out these other excellent SeedProd features:
- Pre-built templates for Maintenance Mode, WooCommerce Coming Soon, and a variety of landing pages
- Password protect your site while under development
- Drag and drop page builder with live preview (no HTML required)
- Premium integrations with popular email marketing services
- Add social media buttons, optin forms, and contact forms to grow your email subscribers.
- WooCommerce integration with add-to-cart buttons, custom checkout, and shopping cart pages
- Login page mode to customize your shop’s login experience.
- And much more
So, click here to get started with SeedProd and download the plugin.
Note: SeedProd offers a free version, but we’ll use SeedProd Pro for the advanced modules and features.
Then, you can follow this step-by-step guide to install a WordPress plugin.
After installing and activating the plugin, click the SeedProd icon in your WordPress admin area. This will take you to the SeedProd landing page builder dashboard.
Click the Set up a Maintenance Mode Page button. This will allow you to add new maintenance mode pages and hide your WooCommerce shop page from the public.
Step 2. Design Your Maintenance Mode Page
After clicking the Set up a Maintenance Mode Page button, you can choose one of SeedProd’s many templates. This will help you design a beautiful WooCommerce maintenance mode page easily.
Alternatively, you can choose a blank template to start from scratch.
Hover over any maintenance template you like and click on the checkmark icon to use it.
Now you can design your WooCommerce maintenance mode page using SeedProd’s visual drag-and-drop builder.
On the right side of the screen, you can see your template. And on the left side, you can see different content blocks and sections that you can add to your maintenance mode page.
Drag any blocks over to your template and drop them in place.
For example, we added a countdown timer to this maintenance mode page by dragging it over to the template. Then, click on the block to choose the style, set the date and time, and set other customization options.
Other blocks you can add include:
- Image
- Video
- Text
- Button
- Contact Form
- Email Optin Form
- Social Profiles
- Add to Cart Button
- Popular Products
- And Much More
You can also click any pre-made sections, like FAQ, Features, or Call to Action, to add them to your maintenance mode page. For instance, you can offer users a coupon to ensure they return when maintenance is over.
You can also change the template’s background image, colors, fonts, custom CSS, and more by clicking the gear icon (Global Settings page) in the bottom left corner of the SeedProd builder.
Once you’ve added all of the elements you need to your maintenance mode page, and it’s looking great, don’t forget to hit the Save button in the top right corner.
Step 3. How to Enable Maintenance Mode Just for Your WooCommerce Store
Now click on the Page Settings tab at the top of the screen to configure your settings. Under Page Settings, click on Access Controls.
Scroll down the page to select the Include URLs option. After selecting Include URLs, you’ll see a blank field below it.
Copy the URL of your published password-protected WooCommerce store and paste it into the given blank field.
If this is a new WooCommerce installation, you’ll want to include the following default pages. Just replace “example.com” with your domain:
- https://example.com/shop
- https://example.com/cart
- https://example.com/checkout
- https://example.com/my-account
If you’ve already added products to your store, you should add the following URLs as well:
- https://example.com/product/*
- https://example.com/product-category/*
- https://example.com/product-tag/*
The asterisk on the end of the URL is a wildcard that will include any URL starting with that pattern.
SeedProd will hide the WooCommerce shop pages you added when you publish your maintenance page.
So, let’s go ahead and publish your WooCommerce maintenance mode page.
Step 4. Publish Your WooCommerce Maintenance Mode Page
To make your WooCommerce maintenance mode page live, click on the dropdown arrow next to the Save button and click Publish.
SeedProd will notify you that your maintenance page is live in a popup overlay. To see what it looks like, click the See Live Page button.
Here’s an example of how our WooCommerce maintenance mode page looks live on the front end of our website:
Of course, your maintenance mode page will likely look different than this, thanks to all of SeedProd’s customization options. But this is what your visitors will see when they land on your WooCommerce shop page.
The final step is to activate the maintenance mode page. To do this, go to SeedProd » Pages from your WordPress admin area and find the maintenance mode section.
Then click the Inactive toggle to make it Active.
You’ve now put WooCommerce in maintenance mode and disabled your shop page.
Now you can log in to the backend and continue working on the store until it’s ready to go live again. And you can do that while you hide your WooCommerce shop page from the public.
How Do I Turn Off WooCommerce Maintenance Mode?
When you’re done with maintenance, you can turn off WordPress maintenance mode to let shoppers view your WooCommerce pages again.
Suppose you want to turn off maintenance mode for WooCommerce. In that case, go back to SeedProd » Pages from your WordPress dashboard. Under the Maintenance Mode option, click the toggle from Active to Inactive.
That’s it! Now your visitors can view the live version of your WooCommerce store again.
WooCommerce Maintenance Mode FAQ
You can password-protect WooCommerce pages easily with SeedProd. Just follow step 3 above.
The duration of maintenance mode depends on the updates you’re making to your store. Typically, it’s best to keep it as short as possible to minimize the impact on your customers. Plan your updates ahead of time and notify your customers in advance if possible.
While your store is in maintenance mode, customers won’t be able to place orders. However, any orders placed before you enable maintenance mode will still be processed as usual.
Yes, you can still track your website’s traffic during maintenance mode by integrating analytics tools like Google Analytics. Most maintenance mode plugins, like SeedProd, allow you to add tracking code to your maintenance page.
You can safely disable WooCommerce, or remove the pages from your shop menu. But if users can access the pages via the URL or Google Results, they can still purchase. You can avoid this by either disabling the WooCommerce plugin or adding a store notice that your shop isn’t open and disabling all payment methods.
Navigate to Plugins from your WordPress dashboard, where you’ll find a list of installed plugins. Then find the plugin you want to disable and click Deactivate. Once you click Deactivate, WordPress will deactivate the plugin.
If you deactivate WooCommerce and delete the plugin from WordPress, you will only remove the plugin and its files. Your WooCommerce settings, orders, products, pages, etc., will remain in your database.
You’ve now learned how to put WooCommerce in maintenance mode so you can work on your shop pages in private without disrupting your site visitors.
Get started with SeedProd today to create your very own maintenance mode page.
We hope this article was helpful to you! To grow your store, you should also check out our roundup of the best WooCommerce plugins.
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