Take your site offline for a while

Sometimes you need the phone to stop ringing for a bit — an illness, a death in the family, or simply more work than you can take. Hiding your site takes it off the internet temporarily and puts it back with one click, exactly as it was. It is not the same as cancelling, and it deletes nothing.

Hide your site#

1. Sign in and open your site from your dashboard.
2. Look for "Need to take your site down for a while?" and tap it to open. In the studio the same panel is under the "Settings" tab.
3. Read the list of what happens — it is short and it is the whole truth.
4. Tap "Hide my site". The button says "Hiding your site…" while it works.

What hiding actually does#

Anyone who visits your web address gets a "page not found". That includes a customer holding your card, and it includes Google. New quote requests stop, because there is no form to fill in. Leads you already have stay in your dashboard, and so do your pages, your photos, your web address and every setting.

Your billing does not change. Hiding your site neither starts nor stops a bill — if you are on the $49/mo plan, that keeps running while the site is hidden. If what you actually want is to stop paying, cancel instead; your site then stays live until the end of the month you have already paid for.

If you stay hidden for a long stretch, Google may drop your pages from its results until it re-checks them after you are back. That is the one cost that is not instantly reversible, and it is the reason to prefer a short hide over a long one.

Put it back#

While the site is hidden, its page in the dashboard carries an amber notice: "● Your site is hidden" with the date you hid it, and a button that reads "Put my site back online". Tap it and the site returns immediately, with every page, photo and setting as you left it. There is no charge for hiding or unhiding, and no limit on how often you do it.

Which one do you want?#

Going away for a fortnight? Do nothing. A live site answering quote requests while you are away is worth more than a hidden one, and the leads will be waiting in your dashboard.

Cannot take work for a month or two? Hide the site. The bill keeps running, so this is the choice for a pause you know is short.

Winding the business down for a season or for good? Cancel the subscription. Your site stays live to the end of the month you paid for, then comes offline by itself, and everything you built stays saved in your account for whenever you come back.