Do you want to create a beautiful coming soon page for your WordPress site?
A pre-launch page can build anticipation, create hype, and spread the word even before publishing your website. You can also use a coming soon page to collect leads and get subscribers for your mailing list.
In this article, we will show you how to quickly and easily create beautiful coming soon pages in WordPress.
Why Create Coming Soon Pages in WordPress?
Coming soon pages are not just a placeholder for your website. They can also be an effective lead generation tool for your business.
Here are a few ways that we have used coming soon pages:
- Gauge User Interest – If you are unsure about an idea, then a coming soon page can help you gauge how many people will be interested in your project.
- Build Hype – You can use a coming soon page to build anticipation and get people excited about your business. You can even encourage people to share your coming soon page using contests and giveaways, which can help you reach a wider audience.
- Capture Leads – With the right tools, you can start building your email list and ask users to follow your social profiles. Then, when you launch your site you’ll already have likes and followers that you can use as powerful social proof.
Before creating a coming soon page, you’ll need a domain name and a WordPress hosting provider. Normally, a domain costs around $16 per year, and hosting plans start at $7.88 per month (usually paid annually). As you can see, this can be expensive, especially for new businesses that are just starting out.
Luckily, our friends at Bluehost have agreed to offer a free domain name and a generous discount on hosting for WPBeginner users.
Basically, you can launch a landing page or even an entire website for just $2.75 per month.
Bluehost is one of the biggest hosting companies in the world and is even officially recommended by WordPress.org.
Once you have signed up for a hosting account, Bluehost will automatically install WordPress for you. You can then simply log into your WordPress account dashboard and start working on your coming soon page and website.
If you don’t want to use Bluehost, then you can also install WordPress on other hosting companies like Hostinger, SiteGround, or WP Engine following a fairly similar process.
For more detailed instructions, you can follow our step-by-step guide on how to make a WordPress website.
How to Create a Beautiful Coming Soon Page
The easiest way to make a landing page is by using SeedProd. It is the best landing page builder on the market and makes it easy to create a coming soon page using the drag-and-drop editor.
First, you need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Note: There is also a free version of SeedProd available. However, in this guide, we’ll be using the Pro version as it integrates with all of the best email marketing services so you can start collecting leads and building your mailing list, even before launching your website.
Upon activation, you need to visit SeedProd » Settings and enter your license key.
You can find this license key under your account on the SeedProd website. After entering this information, click on the ‘Verify Key’ button.
Next, go to SeedProd » Landing Pages. In the ‘Coming Soon Mode’ section, click on ‘Set up a Coming Soon Page.’
You can now choose a template for your coming soon page.
SeedProd has lots of different templates that you can choose from. To preview a design, simply hover your mouse over it and then click on the magnifying glass.
When you find a design that you like, simply click on ‘Choose This Template.’
We’re using the ‘Launch Coming Soon’ template in all of our images, but you can use any design you like.
After selecting a template, you’ll be taken to the drag-and-drop builder, where you can start customizing your coming soon template.
On the right side of the screen is a live preview of your page.
To customize any part of the template, simply click to select that block in the layout. The left-hand menu will then show all the different settings you can use to customize that block.
You can also add new blocks to your coming soon page. As an example, let’s add a countdown timer so visitors know how long they have to wait until your site launch.
In the left-hand menu, find the ‘Countdown’ block and drop it onto your page preview.
After that, click to select the Countdown block in your layout.
In the left-hand menu, select the date and time when you plan to publish your website.
The countdown block will now show the day, hours, minutes, and seconds until your website goes live. In this way, you can build anticipation and excitement around your site’s official launch date.
You can now add more blocks to your coming soon page following the same process described above.
Connect Your Email Marketing Service
You can use your coming soon page to collect leads and build your mailing list, ready for when your website launches.
To connect this page to your email marketing service provider, click on the ‘Connect’ tab.
You can then hover your mouse over the email marketing service that you use on your website, such as Constant Contact, Sendinblue, or Drip.
When the ‘Connect’ button appears, give it a click.
For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll be connecting our coming soon page to Constant Contact. When it appears, click on the ‘Connect New Account’ button.
Next, you can type in the API Key from your Constant Contact account.
After that, give this connection a name. You can use anything that helps you identify this connection in WordPress.
Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Connect’ button.
This will open a popup where you can log into your Constant Contact account. If you’re happy to give SeedProd access to your Constant Contact account, then click on ‘Allow.’
SeedProd will now fetch all of the information from your Constant Contact account.
You can go ahead and choose the email list that you want to use and then click on the ‘Save Integration Details’ button.
Publishing Your Coming Soon Page
When you’ve finished working on your coming soon page, the next step is publishing it.
First, you need to click on the Save button and then select ‘Save as Template.’
When asked, go ahead and type in a name for the template. This is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.
After that, click on ‘Save Template.’
In the next popup, click on ‘Return to Page Editor.’ You can then click on the ‘X’ button in the upper-right corner to close the SeedProd page editor.
At this point, you may see a popup asking whether you want to publish your new coming soon design. If you’re happy to go ahead, then click on ‘Yes, Activate.’
If you don’t want to put your site into coming soon mode just yet, then you can click on the ‘No, Close’ button.
You can publish the design at any point by simply going to SeedProd » Pages. Here, click on the switch in the ‘Coming Soon Mode’ section, so it shows ‘Active.’
While your website is in coming soon mode, you can still log into your WordPress dashboard and work on your site.
However, logged-out users and visitors will only be able to see the coming soon page.
Advanced Settings for Coming Soon Page
By default, SeedProd will show your coming soon page to all non-logged-in users.
It is possible to change who has access to your website while it is in coming soon mode. For example, if you’re designing a website for a client, then these people may need access to the site while it’s in coming soon mode.
To change how the coming soon page is displayed, go to SeedProd » Landing Pages and click on the ‘Edit Page’ button under the ‘Coming Soon Mode’ box.
This will open the SeedProd page builder.
Next, click on the ‘Page Settings,’ followed by ‘Access Control.’
If you want to allow some users to access your website, then click on ‘Add Role.’
This opens a dropdown where you can grant access based on the user’s assigned role, such as subscriber or author.
If you want to grant access based on IP address, then simply type an address into the ‘Access by IP’ box.
You can also switch to the ‘SEO’ tab and provide an SEO title, description, a featured image that will be used when your link is shared on social media websites, and more.
This can help you build brand awareness, even before launching your full website.
You can also choose to tell search engines not to index that page, by clicking to activate the ‘Enable No Index’ switch.
If you’ve installed popular SEO plugins like All in One SEO, then SeedProd works seamlessly with them as well.
Lastly, you can switch to the ‘Scripts’ tab and add any third-party scripts that you may want to use. For instance, you may want to add Google Analytics code, Facebook pixel, or other tracking code to your coming soon page.
When you’re finished, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button at the top to save your advanced page settings.
Switching off The Coming Soon Page
When you’re ready to publish your website, SeedProd makes it super easy to turn off the coming soon mode.
Simply go to SeedProd » Landing Pages and switch off the ‘Active’ toggle under the Coming Soon Mode box.
Now, if you visit your website you’ll be able to see all your pages and posts.
Creating a Maintenance Mode Page in WordPress
You may want to display a maintenance mode page instead of a coming soon page. A maintenance mode page is helpful if your site is undergoing maintenance, and you want to let visitors know that you will be back soon.
SeedProd also lets you create beautiful maintenance pages in WordPress.
Simply go to SeedProd » Landing Pages and click on ‘Set up a Maintenance Mode Page.’
The rest of the process is the same as creating a coming soon page. You can control exactly who sees this page and can easily turn off maintenance mode when you are done.
To learn more, see our guide on how to put your WordPress site in maintenance mode.
We hope this article helped you learn how to create beautiful coming soon pages in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate guide on how to increase your blog traffic, and our comparison of the best business phone services to improve your workflow.
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Fauwaz Marjan says
Is there a way for the logo to be aligned left of the page in the coming soon page? Because every time I save the changes, it automatically keeps the logo aligned to the center.
WPBeginner Support says
Please reach out to SeedProd’s support and they should be able to take a look and assist you.
Admin
Jerome Brooks says
Hello,
My page is presently set on the Coming Soon Mode Active. How do I make my page active for the world to see? Thank you.
Jerome Brooks
WPBeginner Support says
That would normally be due to a plugin, you could either check through your plugins settings or disable your plugins that you are not actively using for finding where that is set.
Admin