Step By Step Guide to Unpublishing Your Wix Website
If you are wondering, “how do I temporarily disable my Wix website?” unpublishing it can be the best option. Unpublishing your Wix website is a quick and easy process if you follow these steps.
We explained how you could do that quickly with this step-by-step guide.
Step 1: Log in to your Wix account & go to the “Settings” section in your dashboard.
![first step of unpublishing a Wix website](jpg/65b7436c5e31effa85e3716f_unpublishing-wix-website-step-one.jpg)
Step 2: Click on the “Website settings” from the “General” part. This part allows you to manage your site’s name, URL, and many other elements.
![second step of unpublishing a Wix website](jpg/65b7436c006bab536cd0a03a_unpublishing-wix-website-step-two.jpg)
Step 3: Then, click on the “Unpublish” button on the “Website Settings” page as shown below.
![third step of unpublishing a Wix website](jpg/65b7436ca30543f79904058c_unpublishing-wix-website-step-three.jpg)
Step 4: A modal that says “Unpublish your website?” will appear when you click on the “Unpublish” button. Click on the “Unpublish” button on this modal as well to complete the process.
![fourth step of unpublishing a Wix website](jpg/65b7436c21b5e9f99e7b00a9_unpublishing-wix-website-step-four.jpg)
Step 5: When you go to your “Website Settings” page, you can see “Site is unpublished” when you have completed unpublishing your Wix website.
![fifth step of unpublishing a Wix website](jpg/65b7436c145d5b167f852ccc_unpublishing-wix-website-step-five.jpg)
This process will not delete your Wix website entirely, but it will not be visible to site visitors.
Pay Attention to These While Unpublishing A Wix Website
![a person typing using MacBook](jpg/65a7913f03556c5b8651f3cb_a-person-typing-on-a-laptop.jpg)
➤ If you have a premium plan, unpublishing your Wix website doesn’t cancel it automatically. You need to cancel your premium plan and domain as well. You can turn off your plan’s auto-renewal in your website’s “Premium Subscriptions” part.
➤ If you are using paid applications and themes, you should cancel them before unpublishing your Wix website as well.
➤ There might be risks, such as your SEO rankings going down when you unpublish your website.
➤ It can affect your brand’s visibility, so make sure that you calculate possible outcomes before unpublishing your Wix site.
➤ Unpublishing your Wix website doesn’t mean that your website will be deleted forever. When you change your mind, you can republish it at any time.
Republishing Your Wix Website
Republishing a Wix website is very practical, just like unpublishing it. If you change your mind and want to republish your Wix website, you can follow these steps to make it visible.
Step 1:You need to go to your Wix site’s theme editor page. Go to your dashboard and click the “Edit Site” button.
![first step of republishing a Wix website](jpg/65b7436c5af9bec82d737772_republishing-a-wix-site-step-one.jpg)
Step 2: Then, you can customize your website from the theme editor page as you want.
After completing the necessary optimizations, you can click on the “Publish” button to republish your Wix website.
![second step of republishing a Wix website](jpg/65b7436cc28cd4c194703e6e_republishing-a-wix-site-step-two.jpg)
Step 3: A “Congratulations” modal will appear once you click on the “Publish” button, as shown below.
![third step of republishing a Wix website](jpg/65b7436c5e31effa85e371af_republishing-a-wix-site-step-three.jpg)
You can optimize your site for mobile devices, and your website will be displayed to your visitors again when you republish it.
Alternatives to Unpublishing Your Wix Website
Unpublishing your Wix website might not be the only solution for you. Depending on your business needs, you can also apply other solutions to your Wix website. For example, if your website is not ready to be shown to your visitors, there might be other steps you can take.
We gathered alternatives to unpublishing a Wix website below so you can apply the suitable one to your site.
Hiding A Wix Site from Search Engines
You can hide your Wix site from search engines for SEO purposes. You might consider doing that if you are optimizing your site and don’t want it to be indexed yet.
Step 1: Go to the “Marketing & SEO” part on your dashboard.
![first step of hiding a Wix website from search engines](jpg/65b7436ccebba152b5255455_hiding-a-wix-site-from-search-engines-step-one.jpg)
Step 2: Then, click on the “SEO Tools” section as shown below.
![second step of hiding a Wix website from search engines](jpg/65b7436ce29fd2c57484d483_hiding-a-wix-site-from-search-engines-step-two.jpg)
Step 3: On the “SEO Tools” page, click “SEO Settings.”
![third step of hiding a Wix website from search engines](jpg/65b7436ccebba152b5255440_hiding-a-wix-site-from-search-engines-step-three.jpg)
Step 4: You can manage your website’s SEO settings to get the most out of it in this section. From the “Set site preferences” section, turn off the “Let search engines index your site” toggle to hide your site.
![fourth step of hiding a Wix website from search engines](jpg/65b7436cfc4c59f7f2417e7a_hiding-a-wix-site-from-search-engines-step-four.jpg)
Step 5: After you turn the toggle off, a notice button that says “Your site won’t appear in search results” will appear. You can click on the “Hide Site” button to add a no-index tag to all of your site pages.
![fifth step of hiding a Wix website from search engines](jpg/65b7436cab8a4c0490f29c0a_hiding-a-wix-site-from-search-engines-step-five.jpg)
Adding Coming Soon Page for An Unready Wix Website
Including the coming soon page while you are adjusting your website can also be a useful option. That way, you can announce that your website is getting ready for something exciting and inform your visitors about these preparations.
Step 1: Go to your Wix website’s editor and click on “Pages & Menu.”
![first step of adding coming soon page to a Wix website](jpg/65b7436ce5fbd47e35922d62_adding-coming-soon-page-step-one.jpg)
Step 2: Then, click on the “Add Page” button as shown below.
![second step of adding coming soon page to a Wix website](jpg/65b7436c3228c88b67992a34_adding-coming-soon-page-step-two.jpg)
Step 3: Many Wix theme templates will come up when you click on that button. Then, you can select a page to add to your Wix site from various templates.
![third step of adding coming soon page to a Wix website](jpg/65b7436cbcfbf52a02717ad8_adding-coming-soon-page-step-three.jpg)
Under the “Landing Page” category, you can find “Coming Soon” templates.
There are various coming soon page templates you can use on Wix, so choose one that can fit your site’s look to customize later on.
Step 4: Click on the “Add Page” button by going to the template you like or choose “Preview” to preview it before adding it to your site.
![fourth step of adding coming soon page to a Wix website](jpg/65b7436c7771d0b8c89e6f67_adding-coming-soon-page-step-four.jpg)
After adding your page, you can customize it as you want and build your coming soon page properly!
Optional: By clicking on the “Set as Homepage” on your page’s setting part, you can set this page as your home page as well as shown below.
![setting coming soon page as the homepage of a Wix website](jpg/65b7436c5a37c967e1b8b9e2_adding-coming-soon-page-optional-step.jpg)
Deleting Your Wix Site Permanently
You might be considering deleting your Wix website permanently rather than unpublishing it. However, don’t forget that this step is different from unpublishing, so your website will not be visible ever again once you delete it.
Here is a quick guide to how to delete a Wix site permanently:
Step 1: Go to the “Site Actions” section on your Wix dashboard.
![first step of deleting a Wix website](jpg/65b7436c3061e1aff3af0d05_deleting-a-wix-site-step-one.jpg)
Step 2: Click on the “Move to Trash” as shown below.
![second step of deleting a Wix website](jpg/65b7436cfc4c59f7f2417e7e_deleting-a-wix-site-step-two.jpg)
Step 3: Then, a warning modal will appear and will ask whether you want to delete your site permanently. Click on the “Move to Trash” button to delete your site.
![third step of deleting a Wix website](jpg/65b7436c8f16376d856f0dd7_deleting-a-wix-site-step-three.jpg)
Keep in mind that this action will delete your site entirely.
In Conclusion…
That is all for how to unpublish your Wix website! We hope you found this article helpful and found answers to your questions. If you are unsure about whether you should delete your Wix site or not, unpublishing it can be a better option for you.
Keep in mind that unpublishing your site may have risks, such as your rankings going down and brand visibility decreasing. List all the possible outcomes and evaluate whether or not you should unpublish your website.
Since we explained alternatives to unpublishing your Wix site, you can apply these strategies to your site as well. If you have any questions or ideas regarding this topic, feel free to leave a comment.
Frequently Asked Questions
![a gif of Homer Simpsons from The Simpsons saying "Now I will take your questions"](gif/65a6370fb15af614e3ecbf4a_the-simpsons-question.gif)
What are The Reasons for Unpublishing A Wix Site?
One might consider unpublishing their Wix site for various reasons, such as the website being not ready or under construction. Apart from these, a site can be unpublished to keep the domain that is not currently in use and is planned to use in the future.
Also, if a brand is planning to rebrand its website, it can unpublish the site to make this process smoother. Since unpublishing is different from deleting a website permanently, a lot of users can choose to unpublish their Wix site.
What are The Risks of Unpublishing A Wix Site?
Unpublishing your website will most likely impact your rankings. The longer your website is unpublished, the more impact your site’s rankings will be seen. Considering your SEO efforts, you need to bear in mind that unpublishing your site will affect them.
It can affect your brand’s visibility since people who are searching for your website will not engage with your site while it is unpublished.
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