How to Unpublish Wix Website

Are you looking to unpublish your Wix website? Many people are unaware of the possibility or don’t know how to do it.

Unpublishing is important for a number of reasons and in this blog post we will explain what unpublishing a Wix website entails, why you might need to do that, and the steps you need to follow.

Why You Might Need to Unpublish a Wix Site

There are several reasons why you might want to unpublish your Wix website. These include:

• You have decided not to use your website anymore and no longer need it online.
• You have an old version of the website that needs to be taken offline while you work on a new version.
• You want to make changes or updates to the website but don’t want users to see it in its current state.
• You want to temporarily suspend your website for maintenance purposes or other reasons.
• Your content has become outdated or irrelevant and needs updating before being available online again.

Steps for Unpublishing a Wix Site

The process of unpublishing a Wix site is relatively simple and straightforward:

1. Log into your Wix account and navigate to ‘My Sites’.
2. Select the relevant site from the list provided (this will be listed as ‘Online’).
3. Click on ‘Settings’ at the bottom of the page.
4. Scroll down until you reach ‘Unpublish Your Site’ and click on it.
5. A pop-up window will appear asking if you are sure that you want to unpublish the site, click ‘Unpublish Site’ if this is what you wish to do, if not, click ‘Keep Online’.

Once these steps have been completed your website will be taken offline within 24 hours.

How To Remove a Site From Search Engines

Removing your site from search engines is important so that any visitors who find your page through Google won’t arrive at an inactive page.

To achieve this simply go into ‘SEO & Tracking’ in the settings menu and switch off search engine indexing by clicking off both Google and Bing options (they should both be green when activated).

This will take 72 hours for the search engine bots to crawl through this take effect so by then visitors should no longer find your page through Google/Bing searches.

Considerations Before Unpublishing Your Wix Website

Before finally deciding whether or not unpublishing is the right move for you there are some things that need considering such as:

• Have all updates been completed? Any unfinished changes need completing before unpublishing otherwise they won’t take effect once renewed online again (if they do at all).
• Is there any valid reason why leaving it published would be beneficial? Are there any pending orders or referrals which would add value should they still use an active page whilst waiting?

Alternative Steps To Take Before Unpublishing Your Wix Website

• Temporary redirects – put in place temporary redirects which can direct users from inactive pages onto working ones which could help maintain user engagement whilst making necessary changes/updates occur in private (by connecting popular pages with related ones).
• Password protection – rather than completely removing access, consider creating password-protected pages so that only select viewers can enter them (also useful for upcoming launch pages)
• Maintenance Mode – many websites now offer visitors a ‘Maintenance mode’ when entering them where it’s clear that changes are being made but data such as contact information can still remain visible; informing customers these changes are taking place can help maintain trust/brand loyalty until completion

Conclusion

In conclusion, if decided upon unpublishing a Wix site is a simple process that just requires basic navigation through the settings menu within the account dashboard. Although there are other alternatives that could perhaps better suit specific situations; such as password protection, and maintenance mode.

As always research should always be done into individual cases before action is taken so make sure all considerations have been made prior to any change – because once gone it is gone!