You can close your website for a while in two ways: publish a short "back soon" page as your home page, or ask us to remove your website's files from the server. Either way your domain, your email and your hosting plan keep working, and your project file (the editable copy of your website on your computer) keeps the whole website ready to publish again.
Which way suits you?
| What you want | What to do |
|---|---|
| Visitors to your address see a short message | Publish a "back soon" page |
| Old pages can't be opened at all, even from Google or saved links | Also ask us to remove the old files |
Turning on Do Not Publish for your pages, or deleting them in EverWeb, doesn't take them offline. Publishing never removes anything that's already on the server. See I deleted a page in EverWeb but it's still online.
Publish a "back soon" page
- Open your project file. Note which page is at the top of the page list: that's your home page.
- Click Add Page and choose the Blank design (or Blank Responsive). Name the page, for example Back Soon.
- Add a short message, such as "We're closed until 1 March. Call us on ..." Leave the navigation menu off this page, so visitors don't click through to pages you've closed.
- Drag the page to the top of the page list, directly under your website's name. It becomes your home page, so it opens at yourdomain.com.
- Choose File > Publish Entire Site.
- Open your website in a private browser window to check.
Your other pages stay online at their own addresses. That's fine for a short break. To remove them too, read on.
Remove the old pages too (EverWeb + Hosting)
EverWeb + Hosting doesn't have a file manager, so we remove the files for you.
- In the page list, stop every page except the back soon page from publishing:
- EverWeb 4.5: right-click the page and choose Do Not Publish. The page turns grey.
- In EverWeb 4.6 and later: right-click the page and untick Publish This Page. A directory set not to publish keeps every page inside it offline too.
- Contact us and ask us to remove your website's files. Tell us which website.
- When we confirm they're gone, choose File > Publish Entire Site. Only the back soon page goes up.
Before you ask: make sure your project file is up to date, because that's what you publish from to bring the website back. Websites published to a subdirectory of this one are removed too, and files that aren't in your project file (for example files you uploaded another way) won't come back when you publish.
To show nothing at all, ask us to remove the files and don't publish until you reopen.
Closing one section only? Simple Password (EverWeb + Hosting) puts a username and password on a directory. It can't protect your home page, so it can't close the whole website. See Can I password protect my website? Simple Password and Membership Sites.
What keeps working while your website is closed
- Your domain, your email addresses, webmail and any forwarders.
- Your hosting plan. It stays active and renews as usual.
Don't cancel your hosting to close your website: that takes your email offline too. See How do I cancel my EverWeb + Hosting account?
Search engines: a few days makes little difference. If your website is closed for weeks or months, Google may drop your pages. They can come back after you reopen, but that can take a while.
Bring your website back
- Drag your old home page back to the top of the page list.
- Turn publishing back on for every page you turned off. In EverWeb 4.5, right-click and choose Do Not Publish again. In EverWeb 4.6 and later, right-click the page and tick Publish This Page again.
- Delete the back soon page, or set it not to publish.
- Choose File > Publish Entire Site, so every page is sent again.
- Check your website in a private browser window.
The back soon page's file stays on the server at its own address. Contact us if you'd like it removed.
Website on another host?
Publish a back soon page the same way. To remove the old files, delete them with your host's file manager or an FTP app such as Cyberduck, or ask your host. File > Publish Entire Site puts everything back later.
Related articles
- I deleted a page in EverWeb but it's still online
- Organise your pages: sub-pages and directories, changing your home page, and Do Not Publish
- What's the difference between Publish and Publish Entire Site?
- Can I password protect my website? Simple Password and Membership Sites
- My domain, my website, my hosting and my email: who does what?