How to Put a WordPress Blog Into Maintenance Mode
When you need to make changes to a WordPress website, your changes appear live on the site as you save them. If you intend on making major changes to your WordPress site, or even giving it a complete overhaul, you may not want your visitors to see your site as a work in progress. Instead, you can put your WordPress site into maintenance mode using a plugin. Only users who log in with administrator accounts can access the full front and back ends of the site; your visitors will only see a splash page prompting them to check back when your new site launches.
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Instructions
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Log in to the admin dashboard of your WordPress site by visiting yoursite.com/wp-admin and entering your admin username and password.
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Scroll to the Plugins section of the left column and click the "Add New" tab.
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Type "Maintenance Mode" in the Plugins search field and click the "Search Plugins" button on the right.
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Click the "Install Now" link in the same row as the Maintenance Mode plugin in the search results, then click the "Okay" button in the confirmation pop-up box that appears. A new page displays the progress of your plugin installation.
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Click the "Activate Plugin" link at the bottom of the installation progress report when the installation is complete. This does not turn on maintenance mode on your blog; it only makes it an active, usable plugin in your WordPress site's plugins repository.
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Scroll to the Maintenance Mode plugin row and click the "Settings" link below the title to visit the plugin settings dashboard.
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Click the radio button next to "Activated" in the top box of the settings dashboard, and enter the date and time you plan to take your site out of maintenance mode. Click the blue "Save" button.
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Customize the maintenance-mode message that your visitors see when they visit your site. You can change the title of the page, the text of the message and the formatting for the countdown clock.
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Select the theme of the maintenance-mode splash page, if you want it to be different from your regular theme.
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Customize the rest of the settings, including which registered users have access to the full site while it's in maintenance mode, and whether specific directories are still available for the public to view.
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Click the blue "Save Changes" button at the bottom of the page.
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Tips & Warnings
To deactivate maintenance mode, visit the settings page of the plugin, click the radio button next to "Deactivated" and click the blue "Save" button.
This plugin provides a countdown for when you expect to make the site live again, but it does not turn off maintenance mode automatically. You must manually deactivate maintenance mode in the administrative back end.
