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: