Why Should You Care About WordPress Maintenance Mode?

In WordPress, we have heard the term maintenance mode thrown around frequently in recent years, but what does it mean? Maintenance mode isn't just one thing; it can be used for multiple purposes, depending on your situation.

In this guide, we will discuss the various ways you can put your site into maintenance mode and why you would want to do so in each case. We'll also explain when you shouldn't use maintenance mode and other related topics to help you decide whether it's right for your website or not.

Why should you care about WordPress maintenance mode?

As a webmaster of a WordPress website, you've probably come across WordPress maintenance mode at least once. In simple terms, WordPress maintenance mode is a temporary webpage that your website displays when it goes down for server-side updates or security patches.

It gives you—and your readers—some warning about downtime and provides information on when they can expect your site to be back up and running. But why should you care about WordPress maintenance mode? Let me show you.

Prevents performance issues due to out-of-date software

Try temporarily switching your site into maintenance mode if you think your website is slow and bloated because of a bloated theme or plugin. The site will still be accessible, but search engines won't know it. This allows you to determine if your site performance issues are due to software that needs updating, not Google trying to send you more traffic for outdated content.

If your page speed test tools (Google PageSpeed Insights, GTMetrix, etc.) don't show an improvement after removing those old plugins and themes from your server, then it might be time to upgrade them anyway! (As long as they haven't expired!)

Avoids security breaches caused by outdated versions of software

Outdated versions of the software have security vulnerabilities that hackers can easily exploit. Hackers would instead attack an outdated website than a current, up-to-date one because they already know what to expect. Thus, when you're not updating your plugins or themes, there is an increased chance of your site being targeted by cybercriminals and getting hacked.

This can cause irreparable damage to your reputation and loss of clients, revenues, and even loss of money in some cases. So, when your WordPress site goes into maintenance mode on its own and shows a maintenance page that says you're performing essential updates, it sends out a strong message to potential hackers—that you're on top of things.

It saves your time troubleshooting problems.

The number one reason you should use maintenance mode is that it helps avoid getting sued. It's that simple. As a business owner, your website is vulnerable to lawsuits when a visitor has an injury or property damage due to using your site.

There have been several recent cases where these injuries have happened, and people have filed lawsuits against companies because they felt it was negligent not to inform visitors about construction or maintenance being performed on their sites.

It keeps you from getting sued for negligence.

Not everyone using your site will be as careful as you are. While you do everything possible to maintain your site and make sure it's up and running, someone else might accidentally delete an important file or change a vital setting that could harm or even crash your site.

You can switch it into maintenance mode for 24 hours while you deal with issues the next time that happens. Then there's no risk of anyone trying to access your site and getting frustrated because they can't get in. If there's a problem (that has nothing to do with anything you did), they won't come looking for someone to blame—they'll assume maintenance mode is working as it should be.

When should I use maintenance mode?

WordPress uses maintenance mode to prevent site visitors from accessing or creating new content while you make important changes. If you want to add a plugin, upgrade WordPress or move your website to a new server, you should put it in maintenance mode first.

There's no need to panic if WordPress maintenance mode kicks in and lets your users know they can't access some of your content; they can always come back later after everything is done. Remember that having a few things up your sleeve that isn't ready for public viewing yet can be more dangerous than putting something live when it's not quite ready.

What is WordPress maintenance mode?

When your website has to go down for scheduled maintenance, it can be very frustrating for users and devastating for your search engine rankings. Fortunately, a tool can make all of that unnecessary: maintenance mode. If you run a WordPress site and have ever had to take it offline unexpectedly, you know how crucial good communication is with users; sorry, we'll be back up in an hour just doesn't cut it. Your reputation takes a hit every time something goes wrong.

Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to keep your website up but prevent search engines from crawling or indexing any of its content? That's exactly what maintenance mode does; leveraging Apache settings lets, you hide from search engines while still being visible to visitors.

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