Can I hide my WordPress site until it is ready?
Yes, you can hide the website until it’s ready in two ways:
1. The easy way to hide your WordPress website while you’re in development is to check the option “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” from Settings > Reading
![](https://e2mf88cqxk2.exactdn.com/images/2019/06/discourage_search_engines.png?strip=all&lossy=1&quality=85&webp=85&sharp=1&ssl=1)
2. Another way is to install a free maintenance plugin like https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-maintenance-mode/
![wp maintenance plugin](https://e2mf88cqxk2.exactdn.com/images/2019/06/banner-772x250-1-1024x332.png?strip=all&lossy=1&quality=85&webp=85&sharp=1&ssl=1)
The plugin will let you customize the website but it will be hidden for the users and Search Engines. This is how the visitors will see the frontend:
![](https://e2mf88cqxk2.exactdn.com/images/2019/06/screenshot-1-1024x683.png?strip=all&lossy=1&quality=85&webp=85&sharp=1&ssl=1)
One advantage to use the maintenance plugin is that you can collect emails until you finish the website and already have users for Email Marketing when you start your business.