WordPress has a built-in maintenance feature. By adding a “.maintenance” file to your website’s root directory with the piece of code WordPress will trigger its maintenance mode.
<?php $upgrading = time(); ?>
This file is also used during the auto-update process. By using the maintenance mode, users will not see any error messages while you’re updating your WordPress installation or theme. It will generate a default maintenance message but you can override this by adding a maintenance.php file to your wp-content folder.
This is a standard maintenance page I use:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Maintenance</title>
<style>
::-moz-selection {
background: #b3d4fc;
text-shadow: none;
}
::selection {
background: #b3d4fc;
text-shadow: none;
}
html {
padding: 30px 10px;
font-size: 20px;
line-height: 1.4;
color: #737373;
background: #f0f0f0;
-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;
-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;
}
a{
color: #555555;
}
html,
input {
font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
}
body {
max-width: 500px;
_width: 500px;
padding: 30px 20px 50px;
border: 1px solid #b3b3b3;
border-radius: 4px;
margin: 0 auto;
box-shadow: 0 1px 10px #a7a7a7, inset 0 1px 0 #fff;
background: #fcfcfc;
}
h1 ,h2, h2 a{
margin: 0 10px;
font-size: 30px;
text-align: center;
text-decoration: none;
}
h1 {
margin: 0 10px;
font-size: 30px;
text-align: center;
color: #999999;
}
h3 {
margin: 1.5em 0 0.5em;
}
p {
margin: 1em 0;
text-align: center;
}
ul {
padding: 0 0 0 40px;
margin: 1em 0;
}
.container {
max-width: 380px;
_width: 380px;
margin: 0 auto;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="container">
<h1>We are currently updating the website. We will be back shortly.</h1>
</div>
</body>
</html>
The page will look like like this:
