Try These 5 Page Designs if Your Website is Under Construction

Your website is a window into your business and brand, showcasing your products or services. Your website lets your visitors know that you are open for business.

If you want to keep your visitors engaged and your business website relevant, though, you may have to periodically take your site offline for maintenance and updates. As a result, you’ll need a placeholder homepage to inform customers of what’s going on, and that means putting an under-construction page in place.

The good news: Whether you need to find a web designer or can do the job yourself, ­you can leverage an under-construction page to your marketing advantage. The under-construction website features templates explored below will help you get started.

When to put your website under construction

Before deciding what your page should say, it’s a good idea to make sure an under-construction page suits your needs. Typically, you’ll want people to know that you have a website under construction when:

• You are building a new website. In this instance, you want your business to have an online presence even though you are still working on the initial web design and content. You need the credibility and legitimacy that comes with maintaining a current website, and you want visitors to know you’re working on providing the kind of detailed information they expect. This is when using a well-designed page template is a must.
  

• Your current site requires maintenance. All websites need maintenance from time to time. Whether your site will be offline for a few hours, a few days, or even a few weeks, you want to set up an under-maintenance page to let your visitors know that your absence is only temporary and why.

Features to add to your under-construction page

Now that you’ve determined that you need an under-construction page, it’s time to consider the purpose of your page while your site is in maintenance mode. You may even want to leverage your website-in-waiting to add new customers and subscribers and tease new marketing campaigns or enhance marketing operations.

The following sections provide some features that can make your under-construction page more intuitive and interesting to visitors. However, keep in mind that your website-under-construction page is, first and foremost, a tool to keep your audience informed. The primary takeaway should be that your website is a work in progress.

Brand identifiers

The minute a viewer reaches your site, you want what is most recognizable about your business to jump out at them. Make sure that your logo is prominent and that the overall look and feel of the under-construction page identifies your organization.

Incorporate your brand typography and turn familiar slogans and other brand identifiers into provocative headers. You’ll want to use your signature color pallet and fonts. Be innovative, but be you.

Images

Images provide an opportunity to make your page really shine. Feature photographs or artwork that pull the visitor in and leave them wanting more. Pay attention to the details, such as how a particular color palette can inform and enhance the images you choose. Don’t be afraid to experiment a little with background images. You may find ways to reflect your brand with under-construction website artwork.

A call to action

A website-under-construction page presents a great opportunity to engage visitors. Rather than merely providing information, your temporary page can offer a call to action. Think about treating your temporary holding page like a unique landing page and give your visitors the opportunity to:

• Subscribe to your newsletter or mailing list
• Be among the first to know when your permanent website launches
• Join an exclusive e-commerce club for member-only sales and discounts

A countdown timer

If you know the date and time that your new website will launch, think about including a countdown timer to build hype. Countdown timers—such as the plugins offered by WordPress—create a sense of excitement and urgency. When coupled with a strong forward-looking message, they are a great way to build buzz around your business.

Social media links

While under construction, your website presents an opportunity to drive first-time and regular visitors to your social media pages. Provide direct links to your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social media pages so visitors can easily follow you. You may even want to encourage social media interaction by offering an incentive, such as a discount code or a contest entry for every like or comment about your upcoming site.

Contact information

One way to keep your customers and clients up to date and informed is to offer them a way to interact with you directly while your new website is being built.  

If you can make yourself available to visitors in this way—and commit to being responsive—you might want to add your email or phone number to the page. You can even create a link to a contact form that encourages visitors to ask questions and provide their email addresses for a prompt response. This is another way to leverage your website-under-construction page to build up your contact lists.

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5 under construction templates for your website

Whether you decide to leverage your under-construction website page to grow your customer list, create a sense of interest and urgency in your business, or keep your sales funnel online and operating, it can be helpful to review some under-construction page templates. The examples below showcase how messaging and branding can come together to turn a simple under-construction website template into a marketing tool.

Note that in each sample website-under-construction page, the designer has taken pains to stay true to brand identity by paying careful attention to color scheme selection, imagery, typography, and messaging.

Is your website about to go under construction and you don’t have time to connect with freelancers? For your most pressing work, Upwork’s Project Catalog has predefined projects, like website landing pages, that you can browse and buy in just a few clicks.

Call-to-action under-construction page template

Just because your e-commerce site is down doesn’t mean you have to forego sales. As the following page template shows, you can engage with customers and affect sales with targeted messaging, attractive graphics, and a one-click purchase option.

Email signup under-construction page template

List building is one of the most useful attributes of a placeholder page. With this template, the company is inviting visitors to join in its journey and hold out for the new website reveal.

Social media CTA under-construction page template

Social media lets you promote your services and products in real time, allowing for on-the-spot updates and interactive communications with clients and customers. This brand-specific template invites visitors to stay connected with the organization while the website design team stays behind the scenes doing their magic.

The page encourages users to select one or all of the company’s social media platforms, ensuring a seamless way to stay on top of what’s happening.

Countdown timer under-construction page template

This “coming soon” website template invites visitors to join the company in its countdown to launch. The running timer conveys a sense of excitement and anticipation, as the page’s branding reminds the viewer of what they have to look forward to.

Interactive UX under-construction site template

Here, the site owner is encouraging users to contact them directly with questions, concerns, and ideas. They are even offering a live chat option—great for user experience (UX)—so they can interact with customers in real time.

Create a compelling under-construction page aligned with your goals

Your under-construction page isn’t something you should just toss up. If you’re strategic about it, it’ll really work for you. As a result, it’s worth making sure you’ve got someone on your team who can design a truly compelling page that’s aligned with your goals. If you don’t have that person on your team, Upwork can help you hire top web designers ready to fulfill your website design needs.

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